Page:His Last Bow (1917).djvu/112

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HIS LAST BOW

seems no other way, and fortunately we need concern ourselves with the one paper only. Here are the Daily Gazette extracts of the last fortnight. ‘Lady with a black boa at Prince’s Skating Club’—that we may pass. ‘Surely Jimmy will not break his mother’s heart’—that appears to be irrelevant. ‘If the lady who fainted in the Brixton bus’-—she does not interest me. ‘Every day my heart longs—’ Bleat, Watson—unmitigated bleat! Ah! this is a little more possible. Listen to this: ‘Be patient. Will find some sure means of communication. Meanwhile, this column.—G.’ That is two days after Mrs. Warren’s lodger arrived. It sounds plausible, does it not? The mysterious one could understand English, even if he could not print it. Let us see if we can pick up the trace again. Yes, here we are—three days later. ‘Am making successful arrangements. Patience and prudence. The clouds will pass.—G.’ Nothing for a week after that. Then comes something much more definite: ‘The path is clearing. If I find chance signal message remember code agreed—one A, two B, and so on. You will hear soon.—G.’ That was in yesterday’s paper, and there is nothing in to-day’s. It’s all very appropriate to Mrs. Warren’s lodger. If we wait a little, Watson, I don’t doubt that the affair will grow more intelligible.”

So it proved; for in the morning I found my

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