Phil Rushington's Search, or, The Unknown Rider of the Ring — page 19: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

_ ing explained, but to no avail. eT as awe os 40 , ie ay ~ a - e Le (rg ‘ - " t 4 Spice ew Hy r bosom heiued try, and she choked Eietidienation “Be calm,” said Rush, “and let us hurry on “to that letter which you are looking for.” “It seems so terrible, Mr. Rushington, that . such an outrage could be perperated and all but successfully carried through in a country like this. Mr. Levering is a young doctor, and is struggling to get a foothold in his pro- fession, He has not had much success, as yet, -and he is not very well off, but I will have enough for both of us if I can only get my rights. A few days ago, late in the evening, Mr. Levering had a note delivered to him by an unknown messenger. The note was a written request for him to come out into the - country and see a man who.was damgerously oo ill. He never ignores a call of that kind, and he went at once. When he got to his destina- ; oe tion, he was set upon and roughly handled by three masked ruffiians. He was so badly hurt _ that he passed the rest of the night in a farm- house, and did not get back to town until the next morning. On reaching his lodgings, he found an officer awaiting him. The officer ~ told him that Mr. Ardsley had been assaulted _and robbed near the place in the country where Mr. Levering had gone, and that he had been recognized as the thief. Mr. Lever- Then he was searched, and two discoveries were made— first, that the note written to him and asking him to come to the country had been taken ¢ S 5 a +, mn a h pet elf that this note was the one Bumpers e. | hidden. But why was that note valuable és Ardsley, as both Bumpers and Reddy seemed to agree? This was what Rush could not understand, and he was led to believe that there might be an- other document in the case. “Oh, I hope not!” exclaimed Frances, “I thought Lovejoy might have it, and I dressed myself as you see and came on with the in- tention of joining your show, if I could, and thus placing myself in a position to watch Lovejoy, discover whether he had the letter, and, if possible, buy it. All of my life I have been fond of horses. When I attended board- ing school, in New York, I spent all my leisure time at a riding academy; and when I was out West with my father, before he died, I had a horse of my own, and practiced various kinds of trick riding. I thought, if you once saw my ability, you would take me with you.”’ “You are certainly very clever on horse- back, Miss Ardsley,” said Phil, hardly right for you to disguise yourself and try to join a circus. you out when [I did. morale of my employees, especially the per- formers, but it is impossible to prevent an oc- casional hard character from drifting in—as I have found both yesterday and to-day.” “IT do not think I did wrong,” answered Frances, firmly. “All I have done Mr. Lever- ing would do twice over for me.” “but it was It was lucky I found I pride myself on the ie purse had been slipped into his coat. — " - . . : ¥ s * & * : Tt * - . ¥ * * 4 call * 4 . hg It was , “Could you not have hired some detective _ alla plot, Mr. Oshington, all a vile, horrible to do the work for you?” © 7 : hss _ from his pocket, and, second, that my uncle’s “Detectives are not plenty in Edwards- ville,” Mr. Rushington,” she said, with a faint smile. “Besides, if I could have secured such a. > PETSOn : ghoul. have been afraid to trust | i ‘EB e ie Shee plot!” a Bu 7p 7» = “ byt i sais a 7 —_— ~ = 3 oa - ae “ : om | fea a x5 7 ew . elt certainly looked bad for your lover.” c ov. ah ~, i OF oe Fe - * 4” Fag - = =. “Tt could not have looked worse. ‘ | I con- aa sulted a lawyer, who told me that if we could find the letter that called Mr. Levering out — into the country it would be a lone step to- _ ward establishing his innocence.” : eo 3 ome at = ieee letter ae scar ‘ “st - ay. ¥ cand + Ces io = as) 13 é “y Dy P / . : 5 2 pores on Sa Le SAE ~~ Ae Cvs ty x ae ‘a es + eo ty ae - . - - . kh 34 ‘e- ys ° ‘ ‘ . YY. < : “, ° ; A ~. ~ > = he ; - av 4 . - ' a ™ 4 - 7 - 5 . 4 .’ > . : : . 4 , “ + +. t y * : x : | .* | ~ * a $ ’ —_ a es i 3 -. Se eo 8 ~ << ie . - * 2 = mi o a ey é = om . ‘ \ ed