The Phantom Hollow by Gerald Verner

Author:Gerald Verner [Verner, Gerald]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endeavour Media
Published: 2019-05-09T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen – Ursula’s Warning

Jack Denton walked thoughtfully towards the village. The reason he was going to Friar’s Vale lay in his pocket in the form of a long list of comestibles that Tony had prepared for the replenishing of the larder, but that was not occupying his mind at the moment.

Before he had left the cottage, Shadgold, White and Lowe had come in, and Jack had listened in horror to a brief account of the dramatist’s adventure that had so nearly ended fatally. Although Lowe himself had made light of it, the recital had filled Jack with uneasiness.

What was happening at Friar’s Vale, and what was behind all these sinister occurrences? When Tony found that delectable residence, he had let them in for something; and although the series of strange events certainly prevented their holiday from becoming in the slightest degree dull, Jack was not at all sure that he would not have welcomed a little dullness. This living in the constant atmosphere of a shilling shocker was all very well, but a little of it went a very long way. Jack candidly admitted to himself that he preferred his thrills between the covers of a book. The Edgar Wallace touch was a little overpowering when you had, so to speak, to live and eat and sleep with it.

The morning was warm and sunny, and Jack, who had plenty of time on his hands and nothing much to do with it, walked slowly. It was pleasant among the empty lanes with the soft air from the meadows fanning one’s face — sweet, fresh-scented air that acted like a tonic. His thoughts switched from crime and sudden chance to a more pleasant subject, and it was not perhaps unnatural that the more pleasant subject should take the form of Ursula Wyse.

He came to the conclusion with rather a shock that he must be dangerously near falling in love with her. This was the only way to account for the extraordinarily upsetting effect the thought of her had on him. It never struck him that she had a certain amount of mystery attached to her and that in this lay the greater part of her attraction. He would not have believed it even if he had, and yet it was probably the truth. Mystery in a woman has attracted men since the world began and will continue to do so until the world ends. It is the greatest weapon in her armoury, and the most effective. Even a plain woman has been known to triumph over a prettier rival by the adroit use of it.

And this mystery that hung about Ursula Wyse was all the more potent in that it was not the ordinary mystery of sex, but a mystery in which sex seemed to be mutely calling for assistance, which although he did not realise it, appealed strongly to Jack’s protective instincts. The woman was in some sort of trouble — whether her own or somebody else’s, that did not

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