Category: Crime, Thrillers and Mystery
Author of "Ailsa Paige," "Athalie," "Barbarians," "The Business of Life," "The Crimson Tide," "The Dark Star," "The Fighting Chance," "The Girl Philippa," "The Hidden Children," "The Laughing Girl," "The Little Red Foot," "The Moonlit Way," "The Restless Sex," "The Slayer of S...
Author of "Ailsa Paige," "Athalie," "Barbarians," "The Business of Life," "The Crimson Tide," "The Dark Star," "The Fighting Chance," "The Girl Philippa," "The Hidden Children,"...
2. Chapter 2And probably he never would have if the man that she was looking for had not fired a shot on the edge of that vast maze of stream, morass and dead timber called Owl Marsh.
3. Chapter 3"I'm a-going to get supper," he said to Eve. "There'll be twenty-three plates." And to Smith: "Hal -- you help Eve wait on the table. And if anybody acts up rough you slam him o...
4. Chapter 4She nodded, tucked in the sheets, smoothed blanket and pillow with deft hands, went out to her own room. Clinch seated himself and turned a blank face to the window.
5. Chapter 5"I be. And I want you should git your gun and set up by Evie. And I want you to kill any living human son of a slut that comes botherin' around this here hotel."
6. Chapter 6One shot from behind, -- and twenty thousand dollars, -- or, if it proved a better deal, the contents of the packet. For, if Quintana's bribery had dazzled them, what effect mig...
7. Chapter 7In the intense silence other sounds broke sharply in the sunset forest; Harvey Chase's halloo rang out from the rocks above; Blommers and the Hastings boys came slouching throug...
8. Chapter 8As he seized it she screamed for the first time: "Jack! Jack Stormont!" -- and fairly hurled her helpless little body at Leverett, striking him full in the face with her head.
9. Chapter 9So close to the house was he now that he could hear the dew rattling on the veranda roof. He saw shadowy figures appear, one after another, and take stations at the four corners...
10. Chapter 10What Stormont saw was a masked man, riding his own horse, with menacing rifle half lifted for a shot! What Eve Strayer thought she saw was too terrible for words. And before Sto...
11. Chapter 11"My frien', Smith," repeated Quintana, "do you recollec' what it was you say to me? Yes? ... How often it is the onexpected which so usually happen? You are quite correc', l'ami...
12. Chapter 12Sobbing, frightened almost witless, he had been floundering forward for over an hour, and made circle after circle knowing, when, by chance he set foot in a perfectly plain trail.
13. Chapter 13Somewhere among the birches, between him and Star Pond, was Harrod Place. And the idea occurred to him that Quintana might have ventured to ask food and shelter there. Yet, that...
14. Chapter 14And Clinch's mind was on her. All else -- his watchfulness, his stealthy advance -- all the alertness of eye and ear, all the subtlety, the cunning, the infinite caution -- were...
15. Chapter 15Dawn was not far away. She looked upward through high pine-tops where stars shone; and saw no sign of dawn. But the watcher by the fire beyond was astir, now, in the imminence o...
16. Chapter 16"I do, indeed. And I don't blame her. But let me tell you; Eve Strayer is the most honest and fair-minded girl I ever knew. ... Except one. ... I'll take a chance that she'll li...