Lady Afraid Read Online Free PDF Page A

had them when she was little, and she’d seen baby pictures of Paul, and he’d been as freckled a child as a peppered biscuit. Oh, Jonnie would have freckles. But not knowing his size had made it difficult when she had tried to buy things for him. It had seemed so weird saying, “I want the size for a boy aged two and a half.” In the end she had left most of the things she had intended to get him for later.
    Oh! There was one thing she’d overlooked. She seized the telephone directory, searched out the number of the Union Station, and made reservations—midnight train, drawing room, two adult tickets. Ordering two adult fares was a bit of cunning that smacked of Lawyer Brill—the police would be less likely to seize on such a clue. Sarah named New Orleans for a destination, because it was a city large enough to disappear into. She gave a phony name. Tickets for Mr. and Mrs. Winslow, she said.
    The danger of traveler’s checks was one she’d already foreseen. They could be traced, she supposed. So she was carrying five hundred dollars in cash. Enough, for she planned no elaborate expenses. What she would seek would be a quiet place where she could get acquainted with her son.
    At one o’clock Sarah sent out for sandwiches and coffee. She did not want to be away from the telephone in case Attorney Brill called. The sandwiches came and probably they were tasty, but she discovered that she could no more eat them than if they had been made of wood.
    By two o’clock it was worse. For now she was getting into a state where the whole venture looked raw, uncouth, untried. Doubts were prowling in her mind, predatory and fierce. Utterly unfirm; she found herself sickly mistrustful of the plan, Attorney Brill, herself. About herself she feared it was too late to do anything, because the character and the strengths of a person are not molded in one frightened day. But the rest—the practicality of Brill’s wild plan, Brill himself—could be checked with another lawyer.
    She took up the telephone and asked the girl to get her Randolph & Jessic. Randolph and Jessic were the attorneys for Collins Yard. But Mr. Randolph was out of town, in Jacksonville, she was told. And there was no Mr. Jessic in a practical sense, for Mr. Jessic was very old and had retired years ago. He didn’t even live in Miami any more. Mr. Randolph was elderly too, but he was an excellent marine lawyer, if a bit sour-natured. Sarah trusted him like a bank, as everyone did.
    “Out of town!” Her voice seemed as small as it was empty. She stared helplessly at the telephone.
    This left of the lawyers she knew, Mr. Arbogast.
    “Lord, no! Not Mr. Arbogast!” Her lips shaped this silently. “Ask Mr. Arbogast! Ask the fat duck about the hawk!” It was not possible.
    But her gnawing doubts made it possible, and she dialed Mr. Arbogast’s office number. The voice she got was Lida Dunlap’s—the same Lida Dunlap who had introduced her to Attorney Brill in the first place.
    “Mrs. Lineyack, Lida…. is there a chance of speaking to Mr. Arbogast?”
    “Who? Oh—Sarah!… What about, honey?” Lida had a bird-of-paradise figure, but her telephone voice belonged to a bird of darker feathers.
    “A personal matter, Lida. I—well, rather important—will you tell him?”
    “Oh!” said Lida. “Hold the phone a minute, sport.”
    And presently, “Hello, Sarah?” a muffled male voice said. And she asked, “Mr. Arbogast?” because the voice didn’t seem hearty and soft like Mr. Arbogast. He replied, “Of course…. Oh, Sarah! Why, Sarah, what is on your mind? Are you calling about not making the test sail on Vameric this afternoon?”
    “No,” Sarah said. “No, they told me the test was called off.”
    “That’s right. The storm. Wasn’t that wise? Don’t you think it is too stormy, Sarah?”
    She didn’t think so, for she loved a fine ship in a great sea, but it was of no matter now. “I don’t imagine you would enjoy the Gulf Stream this