Page:C Q, or, In the Wireless House (Train, 1912).djvu/128

 her lips,—antl as she did so she seized the opportunity of glancing at the messages in Micky’s penciled scrawl on the sheet around him. She absorbed the news about France and Germany, took in the situation diplomatique, made a mental note of the price of consols, observed that Brother John had died suddenly, and then started forward with half-parted lips as she read of the murder of the Earl of Roakby.

“My God!” she ejaculated. “Cosmo has done it! The fool! Why did he take a man like that!”

She was trembling with excitement.

“I never guessed!” she gasped. “I never suspected for a minute! Why, they ’ll hang him! Poor Cosmo!—The idiot!—I wonder if Micky ’s told the Captain. Of course! Lucky they did n’t see me with him last night! This is a go!”

She glanced hastily around the office, missed the picture of the Hon. Evelyn from its accustomed place and smiled in spite of her upset nerves. Funny coincidence—three men on the same ship, thrown together quite by chance, and all in love with the same girl! And three such men—a masher, a murderer