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I hastened up the long drive, and stood before the big door, my hand upraised to the knocker. And then, just for a moment, I hesitated. If I lifted that knocker and let it fall; if I summoned the servant and announced that I wished to speak with Mr. Colton; if I did what I had come there to do, it would be all over with me in the village.
I was conscious of a great crashing and rustling and splintering directly in front of me and then I realized that the young lady was no longer clinging to my arm. I looked about and up through the darkness. Then down. She was lying at my feet. I bent over her. "Miss Colton!" I cried. "Miss Colton! Are you hurt?" She neither answered nor moved.
It gave me an opportunity to express my feelings toward him as I was feeling then. "Don't let that trouble you," I said, sarcastically. "There will be no 'ifs' and 'buts' so far as that is concerned. I have no desire to work for you, Mr. Colton, and I don't intend doing so. That was not the offer I meant." He was surprised, I am sure, but he did not express astonishment.
You hate me and you hate my father, and you are trying to to punish us for for " I had heard enough. I did not propose to hear any more. "Miss Colton," I interrupted, sternly, "stop! this is silly. I assure you that I am as anxious to end this excursion of ours as you can be. Your being afloat in Denboro Bay in a canoe was your own recklessness and not my fault.
And so ends Nick Carter's ghost story in a most natural manner. Nobody was ever punished for the affair. Even the gang of mediums and heelers whom Nick had rounded up were released after their night in jail, because, on sober second thought, their dupes were ashamed to complain against them. "I call it a perfectly plain case, Mr. Colton." "A case of what?" "Why, murder, of course."
I never did such a thing before in my life." "That flash was close to us. It struck the big willow by the brook." "Did it! As near as that?" "Yes. Don't try to talk." "But I am all right . . . I am not hurt at all. Are we almost home?" "Yes. Those are the lights of your house ahead there." We moved on more rapidly. As we turned in at the Colton walk she said, "Why; it has stopped raining."
By way of answer I led the horse to the bushes, drew the lunch basket from the shade, and threw back the cover. Dorinda's picnic lunches were triumphs and she had never put up a more tempting one. Miss Colton looked down into the basket. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "There appears to be enough, doesn't there?" I observed, drily. "But but I couldn't think of . . . Are you sure I won't be . . . Thank you.
I estimate my safety as worth something, even if you do not." "I did not mean that, of course, Miss Colton. You know I did not. I meant that that what I did was no more than any one else would have done under the same circumstances. You were in no danger; you would have been safe enough even if I had not happened along. Please don't say anything more about it." "Very well.
Experience has proved that the inventor is not the proper person to secure government endorsement; he labors under a natural disadvantage. Neither is Mr. Colton, as the prospective manufacturer, free from suspicion of selfish interest. Therefore it seemed best to have the matter taken up with the proper authorities and experts by someone not financially interested in the projectile.
I invite you both to become my guests in London as soon as this war is over and share my gustatory triumph." "I accept," said John. "And I too," said Wharton, "though we may have to send to Berlin for our captive host." "Never fear," said Carstairs. "I wasn't born to be taken. What did Captain Colton want with you, Scott, if it's no great military or state secret?"
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