"Why did you come here," he said, "and tell me this?"
Larry's face was really unearthly sometimes, such strange gleams passed
up on to it!
"Whom else should I tell? I came to know what I'm to do, Keith? Give
myself up, or what?"
At that sudden introduction of the practical Keith felt his heart
twitch. Was it then as real as all that? But he said, very quietly:
"Just tell me--How did it come about, this--affair?"
That question linked the dark, gruesome, fantastic nightmare on to
actuality.
"When did it happen?"
"Last night."
In Larry's face there was--there had always been--something childishly
truthful. He would never stand a chance in court! And Keith said:
"How? Where? You'd better tell me quietly from the beginning. Drink this
coffee; it'll clear your head."
Laurence took the little blue cup and drained it.
"Yes," he said. "It's like this, Keith. There's a girl I've known for
some months now--"
Women! And Keith said between his teeth: "Well?"
"Her father was a Pole who died over here when she was sixteen, and left
her all alone. A man called Walenn, a mongrel American, living in the
same house, married her, or pretended to--she's very pretty, Keith--he
left her with a baby six months old, and another coming.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25