United States or Antigua and Barbuda ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Balcom had decided upon going directly to Brent Rock. His ire had not abated one iota during the trip, either, and, as he almost ran up the steps to the mansion, he pushed the astounded butler to one side as though he were merely a piece of furniture. "Tell Miss Brent I want to see her at once," he threatened.
Balcom was about to follow, when Locke, returning from the telephone, touched him on the shoulder and shoved the threat message which Brent had given him the night before under the face of the junior partner. "Read that," he demanded. Balcom read, controlling his features admirably, if control were necessary. "What's the meaning of this?" he demanded, coldly.
Balcom entered a darkened room and for a moment seemed quite alone. Then from out the shadows, with a little half run, half lope, a strange figure of man came toward him. He was in reality large of frame, but stooped and bent with age. An old frock-coat was wrapped about him.
Locke, will you be so kind as to get them?" Locke immediately left the room and descended to the Graveyard of Genius for the two models. In the laboratory above were Balcom and Zita, for she had told him of her discovery of the dictagraph. Balcom had the headpiece firmly clamped over his head and was drinking in the purport of the conversation down in the library.
"Keep on, and you'll have the government down on us for violating the anti-trust law. What's the matter? Have you lost your nerve?" As Balcom almost hissed the question, up in the laboratory Locke was now writing furiously in his note-book, when he was interrupted by a knock at the door.
In his shaken condition it was some seconds before he could control the wild jangling of his nerves. Then he searched his pockets and, finding a match, lighted it. There, covered to the armpits by dirt and rocks, was the body of Balcom, whose last act before his own death had been an attempt to murder Locke. Locke shuddered and redoubled his efforts to escape from the gruesome place.
"Well, not for a man who'd just been elected captain and had set 'em up for the whole of Company A," her father chuckled back. "What in the world do you mean, Mr. Balcom? Oh! There's Editha!" She offered to follow the girl indoors. "Don't come, mother!" Editha called, vanishing. Mrs. Balcom remained to reproach her husband. "I don't see much of anything to laugh at." "Well, it's catching.
Paul looked at his best, except for the fact that he carried his left arm in a silken sling. Balcom greeted them all, and at his voice the dying man actually showed a sort of agitation. A strong shudder seemed to pass through his body, then, like a spring suddenly uncoiled, he sat up. He was fully conscious now and strove to rise to his feet.
The man now lying dead, Balcom, was the cause of all these years of misery." The old man passed his hand over his head as though to wipe away a recollection of hate and fear, then resumed: "I was an inventor in those days, and very successful.
I guess I'll have to make a little more light in here," and she went and pushed two of the shutters ajar. Then Editha's father said in his public will-now-address-a-few-remarks tone, "My name is Balcom, ma'am; Junius H. Balcom, of Balcom's Works, New York; my daughter " "Oh!" The seated woman broke in, with a powerful voice, the voice that always surprised Editha from Gearson's slender frame.
Word Of The Day