When Hearts Are Light Again : A classic romance novel by Emilie Loring

Author:Emilie Loring [Loring , Emilie]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Lume Books
Published: 2021-05-26T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

For a split second after Hilda’s announcement John Trevor and Gregory Hunt regarded her incredulously, then took the stairs to the third floor two at a time.

“Wait here,” the Doctor called when the nurse started to follow them.

“What do you make of it, Hilda?” Gail inquired anxiously.

The woman nervously smoothed back the salt-and-pepper hair above her left ear.

“It stumps me, Miss Gail. Half the time the patient has slumped in a big chair staring out the window. He appeared in a daze. If he spoke, the words would be disconnected. Has he been fooling me all this time?” Her eyes narrowed. “Now that I think of it, he has eaten everything I served him — as you know, that’s been plenty — and his color has been better, a lot better.” She dropped into a chair beside the fireplace as if her knees refused longer to hold her up.

“If he has made a fool of me after my years of experience it’s time I gave up nursing and retired to a home for the feeble-minded.”

“Perhaps he wasn’t putting on an act, Hilda. Perhaps someone came in and carried him off.”

“How? Pull him out on the ell roof and order him to jump, or drag him down the back stairs with me and the children in the kitchen? No. That man escaped under his own power. That comes from letting Billy’s dog stay at the firehouse. If he’d been here no one could have got in or out.” As John Trevor and Gregory Hunt entered she asked tensely: —

“Has he really gone, Doctor?”

“Gone and taken my best loungecoat with him.”

“What became of the clothes he wore when Search brought him here, Hilda?”

“They were so dirty and ragged I burned them, Mr. Hunt. Doctor’s orders.”

“They appeared to have been lived in for weeks. I had planned to buy new ones for him when he was well enough to leave,” John Trevor explained. “He got a jump ahead of me. Several jumps, as my dark blue suit is missing.”

“How could he get it?” Hilda Speed’s cheeks burned red as stoplights. “I haven’t been out of this house since he was brought here and when I’ve taken my daily nap I’ve slept with one eye and both ears open.”

“Not so open as you thought, apparently. Don’t blame yourself, Hilda, he has outwitted us all. What’s the next move, G.H.?”

“His escape nails him as an undesirable person to have on the loose. We’ve got to find him. If he is an enemy paratrooper, as we suspect, he’ll contact fifth columnists, then prepare for trouble. We’ve thought he couldn’t talk while all this time his mind was keen enough to aid in planning his getaway.”

“Has anyone tried to see him, Hilda?”

“Not a living soul, Doctor.”

“If he could get to your room for your clothes why couldn’t he have used the telephone beside your bed to call someone, Johnny?”

“You said something then, Gail. What do you think of that as a solution of our mystery, Doc?”

“Good as any, I presume, G.

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