Читать книгу Special Detective (Ashton-Kirk) онлайн

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“So, bag in hand, I started off. It was a starry night; but there was no moon and starlight isn’t much good on a road where the tree branches meet on either side. But I was in the right direction and in a little while I made out the outlines of the covered bridge.

“‘Like a Noah’s Ark,’ says I, as I started across. Footsteps inside covered bridges on a still, dark night are apt to stir up a lot of other sounds; so when I began to hear a kind of shuffling alongside of me, I wasn’t surprised. ‘An echo,’ says I, and didn’t even turn.

“But when an electric hand torch shot a little tunnel of light through the darkness and hit me in the ear, I came about, quick enough.

“‘I ask your pardon,’ says a smooth kind of a voice.

“‘That I grant you, willingly,’ says I. ‘But, believe me, friend, you’ll have to be sharp to get anything else.’

“The worst of an electric torch in a dark place,” complained Mr. Scanlon, “is that the party holding it has a good sight of you; but all you can do to him is wink and look foolish. These being the conditions I didn’t lash out at the party as I felt like doing, not knowing just what he was; so I waited for him to show his hand.