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With his candle held high, so that its light should not blind him, and well aware that it made him a perfect target, Dundee opened the unpainted door and found himself in the dark, musty-smelling room that had served Nita Selim and the Crains before her as a storeroom.
On a sudden impulse the detective parked his car in front of the hotel and five minutes later was knocking upon Sprague's door. "Well, what do you want now?" the unshaven, pallid man demanded ungraciously. Dundee stepped into the room and closed the door. "I want you to tell me the name of the man Nita Selim came here to blackmail, Sprague." "Blackmail?"
"No," she answered in her harsh, flat voice. "I'd fixed the sandwiches and put out the liquors for the cocktails set them all out on the dining table and sideboard, and Miss Nita had told me to go and lie down as soon as I was through. So I did. I had an abscessed tooth pulled this morning, and I was feeling sick." "Did you hear the kitchen bell at all?" Dundee went on.
There is no doubt that the enthusiasm of Lewis as to the weather, scenery, and sunshine would have been much reduced, perhaps quenched altogether, if Nita had not been there, for the youth was steeped in that exquisite condition termed first love, the very torments incident to which are moderated joys, but it must not be supposed that he conducted himself with the maudlin sentimentality not unfrequently allied to that condition.
Nita Ordway, and the name sounded for me a note of other days when, before my coming to Friendship Village, we two had, in the town, belonged to one happy circle of friends. "I thought at first mebbe the card'd got shoved in the envelope by mistake," said Mis' Holcomb-that-was-Mame-Bliss.
Then throbbed the music of the lines: Soft o'er the fountain lingering falls the Southern moon Far o'er the mountain breaks the day too soon. In thy dark eyes' splendor, where the moonlight loves to dwell Weary looks, yet tender, speak their fond farewell. Nita, Juanita! Ask thy soul if we should part, Nita, Juanita! Lean thou on my heart!
"It was my desire that he should know that you are no different from other women," was the calm reply. "I was a spy for him. You are a spy against him." "It was a deliberate plot, then!" Maggie exclaimed, trying to feel the anger which she imparted to her tone. La Belle Nita suddenly laughed, softly and like a bird. "You very, very foolish Englishwoman," she said.
The lamplight caught the man's eyes as they came back to her face, and its rays left them shining with a curious, lurid reflection. "Matter?" A sharp, impotent oath broke from him. Then he checked his impulse to rave. "Yes. See here, Nita," he went on, with a restraint which added deep impressiveness, "we've got to quit. We've got to get out quick. Steve's hard on our trail.
I didn't see him leave, because I was cooking Nita's dinner.... But little good it did, because she didn't eat it, so there was plenty for Mr. Sprague when he dropped in about seven." "Did Sprague spend the evening?" "I guess so, but I don't know. Nita made me take the Ford and drive into town for a picture show. She was in bed when I got back, and " but she checked herself hastily.
"I was going to say all eight of us were ready for lunch except Polly Beale. She hadn't come," Penny went on, her husky voice a little sharp with annoyance. "When Nita came to ask us into the private dining room, one of the Inn's employees came and told her there was a call for her and showed her to the private booth in the lounge.
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