The Port of Missing Men by Meredith Nicholson
page 59 of 323 (18%)
page 59 of 323 (18%)
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The stars were shining among the flying clouds overhead and he drew deep breaths of the freshened air into his lungs as he walked back to the Monte Rosa. Occasionally he laughed quietly to himself, for he still grasped tightly in his hand, safe under his coat, the envelope which Chauvenet had carried so carefully concealed; and several times Armitage muttered to himself: "A few murders, more or less!" At the hotel he changed his clothes, threw the things from his dressing-table into a bag, and announced his departure for Paris by the night express. As he drove to the railway station he felt for his cigarette case, and discovered that it was missing. The loss evidently gave him great concern, for he searched and researched his pockets and opened his bags at the station to see if he had by any chance overlooked it, but it was not to be found. His annoyance at the loss was balanced--could he have known it--by the interest with which, almost before the wall door had closed upon him, two gentlemen--one of them still in his shirt sleeves and with a purple lump over his forehead--bent over a gold cigarette case in the dark house on the Boulevard Froissart. It was a pretty trinket, and contained, when found on the kitchen floor, exactly four cigarettes of excellent Turkish tobacco. On one side of it was etched, in shadings of blue and white enamel, a helmet, surmounted by a falcon, poised for flight, and, beneath, the motto _Fide non armis_. The back bore in English script, written large, the letters _F.A._ |
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