J. S. Fletcher

“ But Uncle Joseph once more held up the fat hand.
“I wouldn’t excite myself, if I were you, Benjamin,” he interrupted. “Excitement’s bad for anybody, and I can’t allow it to myself, consequent upon my weak heart. And there’s no occasion for it, neither. All that me and Mr. Getch wants is a little private conversation, and it rests with you, Benjamin, to make it of a friendly natur’. Me and Mr. Getch don’t want to have no words with you, I’m sure—we’re kindly-natured men, I think, and disposed to treat them fair as treats us fair. ”

“ It doesn’t become young men to show violence to their elders, especially when those elders is rellytives—brothers o’ their own mother, too!”
“Who’s showing violence!” I exclaimed. “If anybody’s had any violence shown to them, it’s us! You——”
“Oh, no, Nephew Benjamin, I think not!” remonstrated Uncle Joseph. “No, Benjamin, I really couldn’t allow that suggestion in Mr. Getch’s presence. Mr. Getch, I’m sure, wouldn’t harm a canary bird, let alone a young lady and gentleman——”
“Never laid a finger on ’em!” muttered Getch. “Not me!” ”

“ I remarked. “Under the darkness——”
I glanced towards the window as I spoke, and my tongue was suddenly checked. There, peering in from outside through the glass of a lower pane, his face seen clearly in the light of the lamp, his eyes staring straight at me, was Miss Ellingham’s Hindu servant, Mandhu Khan! ”