登陆注册
25540700000103

第103章 The Straight and Narrow(1)

This served exactly the purpose Linda had intended. It dislodged the mouse nest and dropped it three feet below her level, but it did something else upon which Linda had no time to count. It emptied every pocket in the coat and sent the contents scattering down the rough declivity.

"Oh my gracious!" gasped Linda. "Look what I have done! Katy, come help me quickly; I have to gather up this stuff; but it's no use; I'll have to take it to Peter and tell him. I couldn't put these things back in the pockets where his hand will reach for them, because I don't know which came from inside and which came from out."Linda sprang down and began hastily gathering up everything she could see that had fallen from the coat pockets. She had almost finished when her fingers chanced upon a very soiled, befigured piece of paper whose impressed folds showed that it had been carried for some time in an inner pocket. As her fingers touched this paper her eyes narrowed, her breath came in a gasp. She looked at it a second, irresolute, then she glanced over the top of the declivity in the direction Peter had taken. He was standing in front of the building, discussing some matter with the contractor. He had not yet gone to the spring. Shielded by the embankment with shaking fingers Linda opened the paper barely enough to see that it was Marian's lost sheet of plans; but it was not as Marian had lost it. It was scored deeply here and there with heavy lines suggestive of alterations, and the margin was fairly covered with fine figuring. Linda did not know Peter Morrison's writing or figures. His articles had been typewritten and she had never seen his handwriting. She sat down suddenly on account of weakened knees, and gazed unseeingly down the length of Lilac Valley, her heart sick, her brain tormented. Suddenly she turned and studied the house.

"Before the Lord!" she gasped. "I THOUGHT there was something mighty familiar even about the skeleton of you! Oh, Peter, Peter, where did you get this, and how could you do it?"For a while a mist blurred her eyes. She reached for the coat and started to replace the things she had gathered up, then she shut her lips tight.

"Best time to pull a tooth," she said tersely to a terra cotta red manzanita bush, "is when it aches."When Peter returned from the spring he was faced by a trembling girl, colorless and trying hard to keep her voice steady. She held out the coat to him with one hand, the package of papers with the other, the folded drawing conspicuous on the top. With these she gestured toward the declivity.

"Mouse nest in your pocket, Peter," she said thickly. "Reversed the coat to shake it out, and spilled your stuff."Then she waited for Peter to be confounded. But Peter was not in the faintest degree troubled about either the coat or the papers.

What did trouble him was the face and the blazing eyes of the girl concerning whom he would not admit, even to himself, his exact state of feeling.

"The mouse did not get on you, Linda?" he asked anxiously.

Linda shook her head. Suddenly she lost her self-control.

"Oh, Peter," she wailed, "how could you do it?"Peter's lean frame tensed suddenly.

"I don't understand, Linda," he said quietly. "Exactly what have I done?"Linda thrust the coat and the papers toward him accusingly and stood there wordless but with visible pain in her dark eyes.

peter smiled at her reassuringly.

"That's not my coat, you know. If there is anything distressing about it, don't lay it to me.""Oh, Peter!" cried Linda, "tell the truth about it. Don't try any evasions. I am so sick of them."A rather queer light sprang into Peter's eyes. He leaned forward suddenly and caught the coat from Linda's fingers.

"Well, if you need an alibi concerning this coat," he said, "Ithink I can furnish it speedily."As he talked he whirled the garment around and shot his long arms into the sleeves. Shaking it into place on his shoulders, he slowly turned in front of Linda and the surprised Katy. The sleeves came halfway to his wrists and the shoulders slid down over his upper arms. He made such a quaint and ridiculous figure that Katy burst out laughing. She was very well trained, but she knew Linda was deeply distressed.

"Wake up, lambie!" she cried sharply. "That coat ain't belonging to Mr. Pater Morrison. That gairment is the property of that bug-catchin' architect of his."Peter shook off the coat and handed it back to Linda.

"Am I acquitted?" he asked lightly; but his surprised eyes were searching her from braid to toe.

Linda turned from him swiftly. She thrust the packet into a side pocket and started to the garage with the coat. As she passed inside she slipped down her hand, slid the sheet of plans from the other papers, and slipped it into the front of her blouse.

She hung the coat back where she had found it, then suddenly sat down on the side of Peter Morrison's couch, white and shaken.

Peter thought he heard a peculiar gasp and when he strayed past the door, casually glancing inward, he saw what he saw, and it brought him to his knees beside Linda with all speed.

"Linda-girl," he implored, "what in this world has happened?"Linda struggled to control her voice; but at last she buried her face in her hands and frankly emitted a sound that she herself would have described as "howling." Peter knelt back in wonder.

"Of all the things I ever thought about you, Linda," he said, "the one thing I never did think was that you were hysterical."If there was one word in Linda's vocabulary more opprobrious than "nerves," which could be applied to a woman, it was "hysterics."The great specialist had admitted nerves; hysterics had no standing with him. Linda herself had no more use for a hysterical woman than she had for a Gila monster. She straightened suddenly, and in removing her hands from her face she laid one on each of Peter's shoulders.

同类推荐
  • 古今医案按

    古今医案按

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 大圣妙吉祥菩萨说除灾教令法轮

    大圣妙吉祥菩萨说除灾教令法轮

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 三秦记

    三秦记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 诗学禁脔

    诗学禁脔

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 地官司徒

    地官司徒

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 武匪天下

    武匪天下

    王冲,一个炮灰等死的人物,无意间下载到一个神秘的老鬼,从此改变命运。在远古传承浮现的时代,在妖族横行的时代,在广阔的宇宙时代,这是一个浩大玄幻故事背景,面对各大势力欺压,宇宙万物,光怪陆离,且看草根王冲如何匪气染青天,魔血填九渊。
  • 共和国科学拓荒者传记系列:彭桓武传

    共和国科学拓荒者传记系列:彭桓武传

    彭桓式的名字是与中国的核反应堆、原子弹、氢弹、核潜艇和基础物理写在一起的,然而,他却为许多中国人所不识。彭桓武,这位不著名的著名科学家在我国军事科学史上占有不可替代的重要地位。在作家王霞的笔下,彭桓武是一个既平凡又非凡的科学家;在很多人眼中,彭桓武还是个怪人。蕙心兰质、自然天成。他富有传奇色彩的人生和潇洒风流的个性无一不印证他崇高完美的追求和自然超俗的秉性。彭桓武,一个既平凡又非凡的科学家,经历了怎样传奇而辉煌的人生?
  • 门隔花深旧梦游

    门隔花深旧梦游

    门隔花深旧梦游,夕阳无语燕归愁。这是紫禁城内的一场腥风血雨,而我们的爱情,是否能长久?几段倾城虐恋,一世难了情仇!无论是平民百姓,还是王公贵族,终逃不出一个“情”字。
  • 换脸归来

    换脸归来

    周玥玥从美国归来换了脸,练成了一身的功夫。并且加入了一个组织,成了一位商业间谍。回国后化名为徐玥玥的她故意接近江伟伦。在成功接近了江伟伦的弟弟弟江伟杰。当江伟杰爱上这个捡来的‘小猫’,江妈妈也认可他的的时候,发现她竟然是商业间谍。情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 长安悲歌之两世情疡

    长安悲歌之两世情疡

    阿娇一场车祸不幸身亡,穿越成唐朝吏部尚书褚家嫡女,遇到吴王李恪,世子凌浩,公子少轩,阿静、诗画等,开衣坊,办慈善,济贫扶弱,后被皇帝赐婚给吴王,经历了一番旷世奇情,却终梦断长安。
  • 群神之战

    群神之战

    一次重生,她强势回归,不管什么时候,众神,我依旧是尔等之主!
  • 天武境记

    天武境记

    来自与东方大陆的坤虚炎,背负了复兴坤族、虚族的重任,帝族、龙族、凤族、灵族等陨落的天神族系再次出现在了五方大陆上,面对着风起云涌的五方大陆,又会有怎样的故事发生。
  • 新一战风云

    新一战风云

    穿越威廉二世,战斗在德意志第二帝国,一场绝不雷同的一战将呈现在大家的面前。
  • 人生是美好的

    人生是美好的

    作品写了我上学期间遇到的事情,多多关注,往后经常发小说,谢谢
  • 异界双面女刺客

    异界双面女刺客

    孤女古悠因遭遇失恋又被迫辞职,一怒之下参加古怪博士的研究~``·~一朝醒来,投身到莱恩大陆的贵族小姐身上。我的愿望很简单,养养宠物,练练法术,做做任务,游游大陆。机缘巧合下,且看她如和一面是温柔高贵的水系女法师,一面化身为神秘魅惑的暗夜刺客。