Will you let me eavesdrop behind these
portieres?... I know it's a beastly thing to do, but--"
Penny agreed at last, and within ten minutes after that amazing
telephone call Dundee, from behind the portieres that separated the
dining and living room, heard Penny greeting her visitor in the little
foyer. She had played fair; had not gone out into the hall to whisper a
warning--if any warning was needed.
He had seen Ralph Hammond enter the dining room of the Stuart House the
day before, in company with Clive Hammond and Polly Beale, when the
three had been strangers to him; but Dundee told himself now that he
would hardly have recognized the young man whom Penny was preceding into
her living room. The Ralph Hammond of Saturday had had a white, drawn
face and sick eyes. But this boy....
Like his older brother, Clive, Ralph Hammond had dark-red, curling hair.
But unlike his brother's, his eyes were a wide, candid hazel--the green
iris thickly flecked with brown. A little shorter than Clive, a trifle
more slender. But that which held the detective's eyes was something
less tangible but at once more evident than superlative masculine good
looks. It was a sort of shy joyousness and buoyance, which flushed the
tan of his cheeks, sang in his voice, made his eyes almost unbearably
bright.
Pages:
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199