The American Marquis by Nick Carter — page 83: what you’re looking at

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

| ‘THE AMERICAN MARQUIS. ee Well, and what if A. G. does stand for Alphonse Gorinot? Bah, Clinton, you drivel like an idiot.” © But the idea was not thus to be driven from his mind. It stuck there and haunted him like a nightmare. Not that he connected Alphonse with the masked man, that thought had not yet suggested itself; but as if he were bewitched by them they kept going through his mind, a sort of refrain to every other thought. ‘“A. G., Alphonse Gorinot. A. G., Alphonse Gorinot.” ‘¢ You must be sick; Clinton,” he said to himself. ‘‘ You have not -been taking the exercise you should. ‘Tear your- self away from Grace for an afternoon and go for a long walk. You'll be sick if you don’t.” And he went that very afternoon, explaining to Grace that he felt the need of hard, exercise which he was ac- customed to. fe Grace urged him to go, for she saw that he did not look like himself. CHAPTER XXIV. A. G.—ALPHONSE GORINOT. A. G.—Alphonse Gorinot. A. G.—Alphonse Gorinot. Despite his most strenuous efforts to think of other things - this refrain kept dancing through his brain. It kept tune to his steps as he walked along. A. G.—Alphonse Gorinot. A. G.—Alphonse Gorinot, until he was nearly beside himself. Could it bea symptom of brain fever? Might it be a pos- sible indication of insanity? He quickened his pace, and still every footfall was only a time beat to A. G.—Alphonse Gorinot. A. G.—Alphonse Gorinot. He ran, and the farmers working in their fields marveled | to see him going at that mad pace in the broiling sun. ‘Lhe refrain only quickened its time to keep up with him. Weary at last, and angry with himself, he stopped by the edge of a wood and sat down. ‘“Now I will face this thing. I have tried to run away from it, andit hasclung tome. I will meet it and kill it with reasoning. Vi Eomicbooks co m