Page:The Tattooed Countess (1924).pdf/297

 Bierbauer announced with some assumption ef dignity, p'raps I can tell you my story.

I'm listenin', Mrs. Bierbauer. No offence intended.

Mrs. Bierbauer went back to the beginning. Eddie got back from Chicago last night. . . . Mrs. Fox, intimidated, continued to rock, restraining her impatience as best she might. . . . He was in the Illinois Central Depot an' who d'ye think he saw gettin' on the New York train?

Who?

Give you three guesses.

Mrs. Townsend?

No! Mrs. Bierbauer was disgusted. She's allus goin' to New York. What'd that mean?

Fred Baker an' some girl?

O! you're way off. Not that he wouldn't. It's two, he saw, two, she added significantly, furnishing a clue.

Not Dr. Sinclair and Mrs. Wiltbank?

Mrs. Bierbauer threw up her hands with a gesture of despair. They've gone to Texas; you know that!

Well, I thought mebbe they'd come back. Mrs. Fox pondered. I jes' can't guess, she admitted at last.

Mrs. Bierbauer was now ready to expiode her bomb. Leaning towards her neighbour, she stared her straight in the eye, and shot it out: That Countess and that Johns dude.