Under Lock and Key; or, Marion Marlowe's Last Role — page 22: what you’re looking at

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

MY QUEEN. | gers. With all his speed he had been too slow, but how could any one know the identity of Cornelia Gordon?” “Show him in,” he managed to say, as the clerk still waited. “In Dr. Lee’s absence, I suppose I must see him.” “Dr. Reginald Brookes!” He repeated the name on the card auto- matically, then he bit his lips and sank back in his chair, making a heroic effort to re- ceive his guest suavely. ; Dr. Brookes hardly noticed the words of greeting. ‘His handsome face was pale, and his eyes were heavy, but, as he approached the desk, he held out a letter. | “T received that this morning, and | wish to see the writer at ofice!” he said, hoarsely. “This lady is my fiancée, and she has been incarcerated here by force! God help you, sir, if you are in any way guilty!” He was fairly trembling with rage, and his eyes flashed as he spoke. As he waited for the doctor’s answer, his glance seemed to cut through and through him. For just one minute Dr. Fenn succeeded in looking thystified, then he slowly pointed to the morning paper that lay on the desk where Dr. Lee had left it. “T have just read that, and it has aroused my own suspicions,” he tried to say, soberly. “T had no reason to think, until I saw that notice, that we had been the victims of such a transaction, but “there has only been one patient received here who answered to that description, and she was committed under the name of Cornelia Gordon.” He rose as he spoke, and opened the safe. The next moment he had handed Dr. Brookes the commitment papers. The young man scanned them eagerly, and his eyes opened wider as he finished them. “They are irregular, sir—I can see that at a glance! Who is ‘Cornelia Gordon?’ I must see her at once. There is no doubt in my mind that she is Marion Marlowe.” Dr. Fenn’s dark face took on a worried look, and, as he motioned Dr. Brookes to a chair, he sé€emed genuinely distressed. It was almost a minute before he could answer him. Then, in a deeply sympathetic tone, he told him of the young girl's incarceration and that he regretted his superior’s delay in looking into the matter. ~ Dr. Brookes stared questioningly, but his mood softened a little. There was just the merest chance that this man might not be guilty. “Then she is here in this building,” he said, with a sigh of relief. ; Dr. Fenn shook his head, and his face grew even graver. ) “She has escaped,” he said, soberly, but 19 we are searching for her. Believing that there was something wrong about her incar- ceration, we cannot, of course, blame her. We have done what we could to unravel the mystery, and, if we have allowed her to es- cape, you must not blame us.” “Poor, dear Marion! Of course, — she wished to escape!’ exclaimed the young man, quickly. “Still, now that I have traced her here, [jam sorry to have to look farther for her. Was she supplied with money, do you know, so that she could get back to the city?” Some one tapped on the office door before the assistant could answer, and, almost 1n- stantly, the door opened and the porter en- tered. | “There’s a young man in the parlor who insists upon coming in. I have told him you were engaged, but “But that doesn’t make any difference,” shouted a boyish voice. “IJ am coming in just the same! You can’t keep me out a minute longer!” He darted into the office and stopped short 99 when he saw Dr. Brookes, then both sprang forward and shook hands with each other. “Hello, Doc! So you got here first, did you? Well, I thought you would!” ex- claimed the youth. “I was held up at your office five minutes after you left, so I couldn't join you at the depot as we had planned, but _ I’m here at last. Have you found Marion?” “She was here, but she has escaped, Bert,” said the physician, quickly; then he turned again to the sanitarium physician. “IT showed Marion's letter to this young man this morning,” he explained; “he is her friend and mine, and he is on the track of her enemies, also! There will be no mercy shown them if we find them—eh, Jackson ?”’ Bert’s boyish face was clouded as he an- swered, savagely: “You -bet) there won't! IUD see .fiem drawn and quartered if I can! And, by the way, Doc, I’ve got a grain of information. It was the nurse, Mrs. Kearney, who told the people at the hotel that Marion had gone to Hickorytown, it wasn’t Marion herself who told the story.” “Then she is the first criminal,” cried Dr. Brookes, hotly. “Did you trace her, Bert? Does any one know where she went to?” 3ert shook his head. “I put a detective on her track—it was all I could do, then I hurried over here, but it seems we have come for nothing!” He ‘stopped suddenly and gazed at his friend with an expression of despair, but, after a peculiar cough, Dr. Fenn asked him a question. ah “You say you were ‘held up,’ Mr. Jackson. By whom, may I ask? Some one who. knew COM ClOOOKS aA COIN