The Vestibule Limited Mystery — page 17: what you’re looking at

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

§ THE VESTIBULE LIMITED MYSTERY. Craig, but decided to hand it over to you. Let all other matters be subservient to the one in hand. Wire me if anything unusual turns up, and do your level best for success.” The clock strikes the half-hour, and I rise. “T will lose no time in getting away, then. What name have you given them in reserving a seat in the sleeper?” “Your old favorite—Hezekiah Broadbrim.” “Thanks. That suits me to a dot.” Then I shake hands with the colonel, who wishes me all manner of luck, and presently I am hurrying along back to my den again, to make ready for the trip. This is not an unusual event in my life. I am prepared to sail for Europe on half an hour’s notice, and on one occasion started on a voyage that took me around the world, with only fifty minutes warning. Iam glad the colonel desires me to assume the disguise of a Quaker, for it is really my best char- acter, and I never fear discovery while carrying out that role. Everything is at hand, and 1am an adept at the work, so that before nine o’clock Duncan Craig has entirely lost his identity, and Hezekiah Broadbrim comes upon the scene, in sober drab garments of a peculiar cut, a wide- brimmed hat of the well-known build, and a pious face that seems to be continually shocked over the universal depravity of a sinful world, as seen through a pair of plain glass spectacles. My valise contains a number of things that I imagine may turn out useful upon such an excur- sion. When I pick it up, bid my good landlady farewell, and sally forth, it is just twenty minutes ‘comicbooks co m1.