end of a week and find that his entanglement was all a nightmare, or, at any rate, that Ziegler’s bark was worse than his bite, and that Senator Sherman had safely deposited the bonds at the Bank—well, in that improved state of things what was to prevent his asking Leonie to share his new-found privileges?
Then, suddenly, the icy finger touched his heart again. As the blue wreaths of cigarette smoke in which he had conjured up this alluring vision rolled away he became conscious that his gaze, hitherto absorbed and preoccupied with day-dreams, was in reality riveted on a material obect under the opposite seat. A very material object indeed—no less than the heel of a man’s boot.
At sight of this disturbing element Beaumanoir’s sensations were of a mixed order. First of all, he could see so little of the boot that he could not be sure that there was a man attached to it, though the presumption was in favor of that supposition, for he was quite certain that it had not been there long, or he would have noticed it before. He guessed, so alert had his mind become under stress of emergencies, that the wearer of the boot had got into the compartment on the off side while
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