J. S. Fletcher

“ Flack’s daughter summoned the guard. And if he had seen what took place between the guard and Miss Flack, Mr. Flack would have had grounds for wonder and what he would have termed admiration. The bribing process occupied some little time, but at last Sadie brought her parent out and favoured him with a kiss on either cheek.
“I fixed him all right,” she said triumphantly. “No Italian can resist the sight of ready money. He'll get a message delivered to Mr. Monke-Royal this very evening.” ”

“ The Honourable Robert Monke-Royal’s disingenuous face flushed a little.
“Oh, well,” he said, “1 suppose everybody’s entitled to his opinion. But I’m not lazy, for I was always keen at whatever I took up; I’m not improvident, for I don’t owe anything; and as to being an aristocrat, well, it isn’t my fault that my father was a peer. He was a jolly good sort, anyway.”
“I’m sure he was,” said Sadie, slipping her arm through his as they walked along the paths of the Pincian. “And so’s mine when his liver lets him be. And you really haven’t any debts, Bob?” ”

“ I've got two revolvers. If you hear firing, don't stop or turn back—run. I'll hurry after you. If I’m not there soon, then—you’ll know I’m dead.”
He waved them majestically away, and took his stand at the end of the terrace. As Mr. and Miss Flack reached the foot of the steps firing broke out above them, and the surrounding rocks took up the sound and roused the echoes here and there, and Miss Flack shrieked and her father swore, but they both ran. When Monke-Royal had discharged every chamber of his two revolvers into the air he, too, ran, and, as he ran, he laughed. ”

“ Flack mixed himself another drink.
“I allow,” he said, “if that young man, whom I have hitherto regarded as merely idle, not to say a younger son of an effete and improvident aristocracy, should unexpectedly develop the resource and ingenuity to assist us in this unforeseen contingency, my opinion of him will undergo a considerable change.”
“British aristocrats always rise to the occasion when desperate remedies are needed,” said Sadie. “They have the hearts of lions and the wisdom of serpents. They decide in an instant what should be done, and they instantly do it. ”

“ If we aren’t back at our motor in an hour the chauffeur will give the alarm.”
The chief brigand smiled and shook his head.
“The chauffeur,” he said significantly, “is already accounted for.”
“You don’t mean to say you've killed the poor fellow,” gasped Mr. Flack.
“Unpleasant things are apt to occur in our profession, Mr. Flack,” replied the leader. “It will be our unpleasant duty to make you and your daughter prisoners until our claims are satisfied unless you accede to them at once.”
Mr. Flack mopped his forehead. He felt Sadie’s hand tremble on his arm. ”

“ Why don’t you pack pork, Bob, or make corners, or float companies, instead of doing nothing?”
“Who says I do nothing?” demanded Bob. “There are few men as busy as I am! What with golf in winter and cricket in summer, my time’s pretty well occupied when I’m at home, I can tell you. Why, I never had a single day off last season, I was pretty well done up by the time it was over!”
Miss Sadie Flack looked at her lover with amusement.
“Innocent!” she said. “The poppa calls that idling. He says you’re a lazy, improvident, empty-headed British aristocrat; there!” ”

“ But he was the sort of young man who could easily run up any amount of stairs at a time without feeling the exertion in wind or limb—a tall, athletic Englishman, apparently not more than twenty-three or twenty-four years of age, with a candid, boyish face and the clear alert eyes and complexion begot of a devotion to sport and out-door life. ”

“ Monke-Royal.”
“All roads lead to Rome, Mr. Flack,” said the young man lightly, with a very forced smile.
Mr. Flack shook his head.
“That, sir,” he said, “is a statement which I cannot admit. It appears to me, sir, that your own particular road leads to those cities which my daughter and I propose to visit. In my country a young man of your age would find roads which led him to industry and to wealth.”
The Honourable Robert scarcely knew what to reply to this, and he dug the point of his cane into a crevice of the pavement. ”

“ Flack, as he handed over a bursting note-case.
“I shall bribe him,” replied Miss Flack, gazing steadily at her parent, “to communicate with Mr. Monke-Royal in Rome. He’ll rescue us.”
Mr. Flack’s mouth opened, closed, opened again.
“That young jack-a-dandy!” he said. “Pooh! Nonsense! He’d more likely run home to his Ma.”
“Mr. Monke-Royal,” said Sadie, “is a very brave man and full of resource.”
“I won’t hear of it,” growled Mr. Flack. ”