Page:The Whisper on the Stair by Lyon Mearson (1924).djvu/197



Ignace Teck should go down south to hunt for the missing money was logical, Val pondered. That, of course, would probably be its hiding place. But that Miss Jessica Pomeroy should go down at the same time—he could hardly reconcile that.

Unless, of course, she had not gone of her own volition. Which was very probable, he considered. Teck, he was sure, would not feel quite easy in his mind if he, Val, had a clear field with Jessica while Teck was away. Val knew that Teck was very well aware that, given a little time, he could easily win Jessica away from him. It would have been a strategical error that Ignace Teck would hardly be guilty of. That being the case, Val could hardly be amazed at Teck’s anger to find that Val was coming down to Virginia, too. He must have seemed to Teck—he grinned at the remembrance—like a Little Old Man of the Sea.

Nevertheless, Val spent a restful night in his lower berth—and Eddie in his upper managed to get sufficient sleep, too. They were awakened the next morning before the train pulled into Cape Charles, the end of that branch line and the point of embarkation for Old Point Comfort, across Chesapeake Bay.

In the bustle of baggage and travelers, they caught only one glimpse of Teck—on the boat just before it Rh