Page:Bailey - Call Mr Fortune (Dutton, 1921).djvu/179

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
168
CALL MR. FORTUNE

"There you have me," Reggie confessed. "It would like to be Latin, but I left school when I was young."

The lady sniffed but, looking at it again, saw that it was addressed to Scotland Yard, and said, "Ah, I understand."

"I wish I did," Reggie murmured. For the sense of that mysterious telegram is: "I am anxious about your sister's school, and don't quite know what I am afraid of. There is a conspiracy on foot which may be criminal. If anything unforeseen happens to me or the school, catch the Prince of Ragusa and his yacht." "Yes. Nuts to crack for Lomas," said Reggie. And he went to dinner.

It is now necessary to employ the narrative of Miss Somers, B.Sc. On the next day there was a lecture given in the Tormouth assembly rooms by Mr. Horatio Bean, the photographer of a recent expedition to the Arctic regions. To such edifying entertainments Miss Lomas was accustomed to send her girls. Miss Somers, B.Sc., was in charge of the detachment which marched to the assembly rooms on this occasion. Her narrative, purged of emotion unfit for a female bachelor of science, goes like this: She noticed nothing till the pictures began—that is, till the room was darkened. Then two girls got up in a hurry. One of them, who was Alice Warenne, whispered to her as she passed that Hilda Crowland didn't feel very well. Alice was going out with her