The Gates of Chance by Van Tassel Sutphen
page 26 of 228 (11%)
page 26 of 228 (11%)
![]() | ![]() |
|
probably in New York at this very moment. Where? Let me first find
Clive Richmond, and I must be quick about it, for once the secret of the theft got out the detectives would not be long in rounding up the various purchasers of those wonderfully accurate copies. This morning the cable brought the news, and at dinner-time Mr. Blake's card was presented to me. Quick work, Mr. Blake; I congratulate you. "Here is the letter that I received just before we left my house; you remember that it had come in the evening mail and been overlooked. I will read it. "'DEAR INDIMAN,--There's more in the art business than can be squeezed out of a color tube, isn't there? But I have the secret now; it was given me by Lely himself--no less. What a pity it is that I shan't have the chance to use it, but you and the cognoscenti can fight it out together. You might bury me decently if you like; you ought to be willing to do that much, seeing that your critical pronouncements have been so amply vindicated. C. R. "'P. S.--My secret? But on second thought I will take it with me.'" St. John's Park and the streets fronting upon it was once a fashionable quarter of the town. Now a hideous railway freight station occupies the former park area, and the old-time residences, with their curiously wrought-iron stoop-railings and graceful fan- lights, have been degraded to the base uses of a tenement population. Only the quaint chapel of St. John has survived the |
|