The Argosy — page 274: what you’re looking at

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

The Mysteries of Heron Dyke. 255 Captain’s glance towards him. For one brief moment there came, or Philip thought there did, a gleam of recognition into those steel- blue eyes ; the next, they and their owner were alike hidden by the intervening crowd. Philip Cleeve shouldered ” way along more roughly than he had ever done before: in a few seconds he was standing on the exact spot where he had seen Lennox, but that individual was no longer visible. He had vanished as completely as if the earth had swal- lowed him up. Philip stared about him, like a man suddenly moonstruck, unheedful of the jostling and elbowing of the passers- by. Up the street and down the street he gazed, but no Captain Lennox was to be seen. What cou/d have become of him? ‘Surely he need not hide himself from me!” thought Philip. ‘We are both in the same boat.” Looking about for the Captain in a sort of amazed doubt, Philip saw that he stood close before the open door of a large drapery emporium. Was it possible that Lennox had taken refuge inside? No sooner did the thought flash across Philip’s mind, than he marched boldly into the shop. ‘There were several people there, customers and assistants, but no signs of the man he was seeking. A civil assistant came up, to ask what they could serve him with, and Philip frankly avowed the cause of his entering. <A friend—a gentleman—had suddenly disappeared before he could reach him: he could only think he had entered the shop. ‘Very possibly,” the young man replied: and as he was not to be seen in it now, he might have passed through it, and left by the opposite door. Then Philip saw that the shop was what might be called a double one; that is to say, that it had a door and window opening into another street. Had Lennox walked in at one door and out at the other, without stopping to purchase anything? It was the con- clusion Philip came to. He recognised the uselessness of further pursuit of Lennox. It was clear that the Captain had purposely evaded meeting him: the reason for such evasion was not far to seek. Philip purchased a pair of gloves, and then pursued his aimless way, weary and downcast. Where should he go, and what should he do? He knew not, and he did not greatly care. He was there alone in the huge wilderness of London, without one living creature that knew him or that cared for him. It was not too late to take the last train home; but he had a fixed repugnance against taking it. Why hasten to meet his mother’s reproachful eyes, and Mr. Tiplady’s incisive ques- tionings? And yet, if he stayed the night in London, he must face those ordeals on the morrow. What could the morrow bring hin, more than to-day had brought? Still he wandered aimlessly on, through one mile of street after another, his thoughts brimming over with bitterness at the recollection of all his mad folly. What now to CORINELHO© “S (C©) mn