Page:A Literary Courtship (1893).pdf/140

 "Try again, Jack," said I; "the evidences of crime are not so easily disposed of."

This time the flame licked its way overto the sealing wax, which sizzled and blazed up for a moment, and then out she went again, leaving an ugly smutch in the grate.

"I say, Jack, this is grewsome. It reminds a fellow of all the detective stories he ever read. I'll bet a dime you won't succeed in burning that all up. The infallible clue will be found lurking in a swallow's nest in the chimney, and your crime will be proclaimed from the housetops—literally."

"It isn't the right shape to burn," he muttered, without a flicker of a smile at my little sally. John has such a way of getting absorbed in what he is about that he loses a good deal! He had taken out his pocket-knife and was now gravely cutting the envelope with its contents into strips an inch wide, which he placed crosswise on top of each other