E. Phillips Oppenheim

“ Armand sneered.
“I'd rather spend my life as a nurse than as the wife of a man I didn't care about,” Claire rejoined coldly.
“Children!” Madame exclaimed with a reproving glance.
“As a burglar,” Cardinge intervened, “I am afraid that I am not a great success. If I had known as much about the instrument as Madame, I expect that I could have destroyed it without using any force at all.”
Madame drew the familiar sealed envelope from the small bag by her side.
“You have perhaps earned your quittance more easily than any of them,” she remarked, turning to Dickson. ”

“ So far every one has been only too anxious to get hold of his quittance and depart. Hugh Cardinge here is the only one who has stayed on with me for a time.”
“Well, well,” Dickson sighed, “I guess we're getting on in life for pranks. What's this quittance you were speaking of?” ”

“ Life is a great problem for an unprotected girl,” she added, making herself a sandwich.
“You have plenty of courage,” he remarked, “and plenty of humor. I suppose the two go together. But, as a matter of fact, you are by way of being a little unprotected out here, don't you think? Madame appears to be your only guardian and Madame is inclined to be autocratic.”
“'Supposing your wireless were to get out of order?' Cardinge, who had just strolled up, suggested.”
“There's always you,” she protested. “I rely upon you more than anybody.”
“That is very nice of you, Claire,” he acknowledged. ”

“ No one appreciates beautiful things and places more than you do. You don't do any harm.”
“A negative position of doing no harm scarcely deserves happiness, does it?” he asked. “You see my life in its way has been adventurous—bad adventures, most of them. ”

“ Edgar Franks declared. “Don't care what any one says, James—a world of brains.”
“I get you,” Dickson murmured. “People are pretty slick nowadays.”
“Look at what's going on there,” his guest observed, looking lazily up at the masthead. “An entire market in the New York Stock Exchange is being soothed by those half-a-dozen messages I have sent off during the last forty-eight hours. Not only that, but look at how they go. Straight from here to my own villa. ”

“ Cardinge asked politely.
Edgar Franks accepted his companions' incredulity good-humoredly.
“Well,” he said, “I've let the matter slip out of my mind, anyway. Some one made a scoop in oil shares that day, but of course the leakage may have been on the other side. With my own private wireless I feel pretty safe nowadays. I can deal with stations I trust and get my messages over in code. Everything I have sent during the last few hours from your fellow will be received by my secretary and coded before it is despatched.”
Dickson yawned. ”

“ I could only send messages. Come on, Simons. We must get up to the cable office at once.”
The two men left the yacht at a run, Edgar Franks neglected even to take leave of host. All his instincts of politeness were swept away by a cold and chilling fear. It was quite possible that he had lost a great deal of money.
MADAME condescended to explain a little as they all sat around her chair on the piazza during that pleasant half-an-hour before dinner. First of all, though, she inquired about Cardinge's arm, which was still in a sling. ”