Marion Marlowe's Disappearance, or, Almost a Crime — page 20: what you’re looking at

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5 MY QUEEN. . Her sister laughed; she was dehghted to Marion, with a shudder, and just at that in- hear her s Mari 7 * ay so, Marion had been away from _ stant she remembered the beggar boy’s warn- her for some time and she had missed her ing. very much, She was about to mention it when Dollie Dr. Brookes was the first caller at the spoke—after that she decided to say noth- little flat. He came early, for he was anxious ing about it. to see how Marion’s arm was progressing. _ “Mr. Ray is brave, but he is right to be “Well, Mr. Rey has started the ball roll- cautious,” said Dollie, eagerly. “OF course, ing, all right,” he said, after he had put ona _ the friends of Dan Watson will try to avenge - ’ res bandage. “That fellow has been held him; those cutthroats aa good-for-noth- — for trial on the charge of attempted murder, ings always haye their followers. Poor Mar- — and detectives are aiready ‘looking up his ion has had:enough experience with them!” — va pedigree and habits.” : “She has, indeed!” said the doctor, as he | “He was a wicked brute to hurt Marion!” glanced at the young girl, tenderly; “but I cried Dollie, angrily. “Why, she was doing trust that this affair will end her adventures. her best to make Mr. Ray stop whipping To be shot, even accidentally, by one of the him!” miscreants ought to be the climax of all such po. | 99 ‘ “He's a bad man, anyway, I guess,” said ‘*PETERESS. the doctor, soberiy. “I wouldn't be sur- His face was so sad as he spoke that Dollie prised to hear that he was a genuine crook. pitied him. she knew that it grieved him to There is a rumor afloat even now that his the heart to think of Marion passing through friends are ‘laying for’ Mr. Ray and that they such hideous episodes. | will leave no stone unturned to ‘do’ him, as “Tf she would only marry him,” she : they call it.” ‘thought, as she watched them, then she re- | “Mercy! How awful ' cried Dollie, with membered Mr. Ray and his loyal devotion to a gasp. her sister, and for a moment she almost un- “Has Mr. Ray been warned of this?” asked derstood Marion's inability to choose be- Marion, quickly. _ tween them. “T saw him this morning and told him,” As soon as the doctor had gone Marion was the doctor’s ariswer. “I advised him to dressed to go out. She had promised to be very careful of himself at present.” lumch at Sherry’s with Mr. Thomas Merton. ' “And what did he say?” asked Marion, Mr. Merton held a responsible position in anxiously. a large dry goods establishment. He was a “Exactly what any wise man would say,” ™an about forty, handsome, well-to-do, in- was the doctors prompt answer; “that while dependent, of an excellent salary, and, fur- thermore, a perfect gentleman. Marion had met him and his sister at the hotel where she had lived, and the most de- liehtful of friendships had sprung up between he was not afraid of any fair and square man on earth, he would take every reasonable precaution to protect himself from a rascal. he friends of Dan Watson are doubtless all them. cept with concealed weapons, and who would Mr. Merton arrived at the flat soon after very much prefer that their opponents were she was dressed, and the two started down- like himself—cowards, who will not fight ex- women.” town in the most radiant spirits. “A dreadful class of human beings,” said Dollie and her husband watched them EOmMmicbooksrcom