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Post, Melville Davisson, 1871?-1930

"The Sleuth of St. James's Square"

"It is not clear to any
of us in its causes or its relations. But old legends and old
beliefs, running down from the very morning of the world, tell us
- warn us, Zindorf - that the signs of each of these masters are
abhorrent to the other. Neither will tolerate the use of his
adversary's sign. Moreover, Zindorf, there is a double peril in
it."
And his voice rose.
"There is the peril that the new master will abandon the
blunderer for the insult, and there is the peril that the old one
will destroy him for the sacrilege!"
At this moment the door behind Zindorf opened, and the young girl
entered. She was excited and her eyes danced.
"Oh!" she said, "people are coming on every road!"
She looked, my father said, like a painted picture, her dark
Castilian beauty illumined by the pleasure in her interpretation
of events. She thought the countryside assembled after the
manner of my father to express its felicitations.
Zindorf crossed in great strides to the window: Mr. Lucian
Morrow, sober and overwhelmed by the mystery of events about him,
got unsteadily on his feet, holding with both hands to the oak
back of a chair.


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