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"No, he is still in town," said Colonel Ashley. "I passed his place a while ago. He has a pair of beautiful Benares candlesticks, in the form of hooded cobra snakes, that I want to get. Singa Phut is still in town." "Does that answer all your questions, Colonel?" inquired Dr. Warren. "I'll tell you all I can, in reason, but if " "Thank you! You've told me all I cared to know.
"We're in for a hard winter this season," went on Sergeant Pengelly lugubriously. "A touch o' frost so early in October you may take as one o' Natur's warnings." "Ay," chimed in Gunner Tripconey, shaking his head. "What is man, when all's said an' done? One moment he's gallivantin' about in beauty and majesty, an' the next phut! as you might say."
"But what gets me, though," said the colonel, "is where does Singa Phut fit in with the watch in Mrs. Darcy's hand. That watch! Ah, there's a link I haven't had time to examine as I'd like to. I must see to it." The colonel fell into a reverie. His eyes went to the closet where he had put away his fishing rods. "Oh, friend Izaak!" he murmured, "How basely I have deserted you! But I'm coming back.
"'I was a-wishin', says the boy, 'I had a pair o' drumsticks. Our lads were buried yonder without so much as a drum tapped or a musket fired; and that's not Christian burial for British soldiers. "'Phut! says the trumpeter, and spat on the ground; 'a parcel of Marines!
Do not wander in the night through a strange city, for Thou wilt fall into the hands of the police or of thieves, but make use of that which the gods give thee at home. Dost Thou wish?" "But will thy daughter go with me to Harran?" inquired Phut. The innkeeper looked at him with astonishment.
Finally he asked the man of Harran to leave the inn, to which he brought no profit, nothing but loss and suspicion. Phut agreed to the proposition willingly, and informed the innkeeper that he intended to sail for Thebes that same evening. "May Thou never return!" thought the hospitable host. "May Thou rot in the quarries, or fall into the river to be eaten by crocodiles."
"I think so yes," answered the jeweler. "As a matter of fact, I don't believe Jimmie did any repair work on it at all. Singa Phut brought it in to have it fixed, it is true, but Jimmie was a great chap for promising work and then not having it ready on time. I've known him to do that more than once, and he lost Mrs. Darcy customers that way.
He probably promised Singa Phut to have the watch ready for him, and then, either in working on his pet invention, the electric lathe, or because of his quarrel with his cousin, forgot about the East Indian's watch. He may, as he says, have gotten up early to redeem his promise to repair it." "But he never did?" asked the colonel.
"Pshaw! child phut! nonsense! nothing kill him? had he been in my hands, old as they are, and shaking as they do, he would not have lived; no, no nobody escapes me when I am determined. We'll talk about that, but not now, Cornelius; the weather has turned warm at last, and there is no need of fire. Go, child, the money is locked up safe, and I have my mood upon me I may even do you a mischief."
I was just interested, as Singa Phut was one concerned in Mrs. Darcy's murder." "But he hadn't any more to do with it, Colonel, than that cat!" and Carroll pointed to the headquarters cat which was sleeping near a radiator, for the day had turned cold and steam was on in the place. "Perhaps not," admitted Colonel Ashley.
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