A
hack will be at you door at precisely nine o'clock to take you to Keene's
side. If you disappoint him it will certainly hasten his death.
Confidently expecting you, I remain 'HENRY JONES.'"
After reading this to himself, the young engineer read it aloud to his
mother.
"So the poor gentleman has met with an accident," murmured the kind old
lady. "How sad. If we had only known this at the outset we might have had
him brought here."
"Certainly we might."
Bordine came to his feet and began pacing the floor.
He was not yet wholly recovered from the shock he had received from being
thrown against a telegraph pole some days before, and he would much
rather have remained at home than venture out into the chill air of
night. He had a duty in the premises, however.
This was the first word he had heard from Silas Keene since he left his
home to meet the notorious tramp, Perry Jounce, in Billy Bowleg's saloon.
August thought of the first note he had received--a warning to be
constantly on his guard, and found himself wondering who wrote it. Not
the detective, for in this note was a statement that Keene had been
stricken down.
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