Manfred's Quest: Or, The Mystery of a Trunk — page 11: what you’re looking at

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

MANFRED’S QUEST. The latter would have moved away, but the man reached her and said: | ** Excuse me, madame.”’ The lady made no answer. **T may have made a mistake, madame. ” ** What have I to do with your mistalen, arr **T am looking for a lady. * ** What have I to do, sir, with your search for a lady?’ ** You may be the lady I am searching for.’’ ** Sir, you are insulting. I shall summon assistance.’ ** No, you will not. Attempt to make an outcry, and I will kill you where you stand.’’ The woman stood like one transfixed. He approached, and quickly reaching forward, tore aside the veil. The lady screamed, and the next instant the man who had removed the veil fell headlong to the plat- form floor, and our hero stood beside the lady. The whole incident occurred within a minute, and, as it chanced, the station man for the moment was away, and no one happened to hear the lady’s sudden outcry. The man who had been felled leaped to his feet; at the -Same instant our hero said ze the lady: ‘* Enter the sitting-room. ’ The lady obeyed, as the man approached our hero. ** You knocked me down?’’ a Gid. *” é¢ Why?” ** You need not ask why you know.’’ °° Yes, I know more than you think. ” ** So much the better for you, sir.’’ ** And so much the worse for you! vice and leave here. ”’ ** Are you crazy, my friend?’’ ‘* IT am not crazy; and let me tell you that the lady is not under your protection; she is a stranger to you. She is playing one of her old tricks. She is crazy. Iam the keeper in a mad-house. I have been in search of this lady for two weeks.” Our hero was staggered for the moment. He had not yet seen the Jady’s face, and as he thought the matter over and recalled all the strange incidents, the suspicion crossed his mind that there was a bare possibility that the maa told the truth. ~ You say the lady is crazy?” ** Yes; she escaped a week ago. She is one of the cut- est mad persons that ever got out of an asylum. She has appealed to you for protection, and you, gentleman-like, believed her in peril; she is in no peril, only 1 must take her back with me!’’ ** Why did you not seize her in the car??? **T did not wish to make a scene. ”’ ** Why did you not come and claim her openly, and not wait until I went away?’’ ‘* I thought the easiest way the best.’’ ** And she is crazy?” LORS? “See here, mister, I wish to go in and exchange a few words with the lady, and if I judge your words to be true I will not interfere with you.”’ ‘* Bah! She will fool you!” _**'No, she will not, for I have already half suspected what you have told me.”’ ** She will tell you a cunning story.” ** Let her, she will not deceive me; but why did you as- sault her?’’ ‘* I did not assault her; I only wished to raise her veil to let her know that I recognized her, ” 4 Listen: take my ad- but I am not a lunatic, and that man is not a keeper. This statement of the man was also reasonabie, and our hero said: ‘* T already half believe your story.’ At this moment the veiled lady came from the waiting room, and she demanded: ‘* What is that man telling you?’’ The detective answered promptly: ** He tells me you have just escaped from a mad-house. He says you are a cunning lunatic.” ** And he claims to be a keeper?*” ; 6¢ Yes. 33 | ‘‘ Sir, part of his statement is true. I have just escaped from a mad-house, where I was placed by wicked people; . He is a villain and in the service of the wicked people who placed me in the asylum. ”’ | The detective was getting a little bewildered. The lady’s frank admission that she had escaped from an asylum ac-. corded with what she had hinted at on the train; and the statement that she was not insane appeared reasonable; and her declaration that the man was not a keeper appeared probable. ‘* Is this man one of the ercouaed ** He is not. ” The man laughed, and said: **T told you she was conning: but she admits she has escaped from a mad-house. ” °° Yes; I do admit that I have escaped from a mad house, Sed I deny that 1am mad or ever was mad, and I deny that you are a keeper; you are a scoundrel in the em- ploy of those who placed me in the mad-house. ” ** You see, sir,’’ said the man. ‘* I can not say that I do see my way clearly.’’ ** You will surrender the lady to me?” 6é No. 23 °° What?’” ~ 66 No. I3 ‘* You will not surrender her?” °° T will not.”? °* But you know I do not desire to have any — sir! You will interfere with me at your peril!’’ °* ‘The lady is under my protection. ” ** She is a lunatic. ”’ ** She is under my protection!” ‘“ Is she?” exclaimed the man, as he drew a pistol owt and aimed it at our hero. CHAPTER IX. ‘*T wouLpNn’r advise you to aim that pistol at me,’’ said Manfred, in a calm tone. ‘* You are interfering with me in the discharge of my duty.’° °*Tam scat a °° You are.’ The man made a movement as though about to shoot, when Manfred exclaimed: °* Seize him!’? Then sounded a voice behind the man’s ear, saying: ** All right, I’ve got him.”’ The man turned suddenly, when our hero leaped for- ward and dealt him a blow that caused him to reel and fall, and as he fell the weapon dropped from his grasp. The detective seized it, and calmly waited for the man to regain his feet. As the latter did so, he glanced around in 9 dazed sort of manner. He was looking for the man who had spoken behind his ear, and had exclaimed ‘‘ All right.’? — co ~~ ax 2