Bengal Fire, page 23
Woodring understood.
“All right. Now for your job. It may not be as dangerous as I think, because you’re not known in Bengal. One of the reasons I chose you is because you’re not labelled in Eastern India as a Blenn man. On the other hand you’ll be up against clever, desperate opposition, and I’m not belittling the risk. What’s more, you’ll be paid accordingly. Think it over.”
“I can give you my answer now,” said Woodring.
“I don’t want it now. I want you to go to your hotel and think it over. Bring me your answer after tiffin, at three o’clock. Good-bye Woodring.”
“Good-bye, sir.”
Woodring shook the burra sahib’s hand, picked up his topi and left. As he started down the stairs, he saw some one coming up from below. At first he was aware only of a pleasantly towseled mop of light brown curls mounting towards him. He could not see the girl’s face. As he stepped aside on the second landing to let her pass, he recognised the girl whose photo stood on Blenn’s desk. She was wearing jodhpurs and a silk blouse of robin’s-egg blue, open at the throat. Evidently she was returning from an early morning ride on the Maidan, for her cheeks bloomed with a healthy flush, and her blue eyes glowed with the pleasure of exercise. She smiled as she passed. A pretty smile, Woodring decided; small, regular teeth; the suggestion of two dimples. Two steps above Woodring she stopped, turned back.
“You’re Mr. Woodring, aren’t you?” she asked.
“I am.”
The girl’s lips, still smiling, parted as though to say more, but there was hesitation in her eyes.
Then from two floors above came the booming voice of Alexander Blenn.
“Ruth!”
The girl’s smile vanished. She was no longer pert. In her eyes Woodring read the same frightened obedience he had noted in the Hindu servants.
“Coming, uncle,” she called quickly.
Paul Woodring went on downstairs.
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About the Author
Lawrence G. Blochman (1900–1975) was an Edgar Award–winning author of mystery novels, a prominent translator of international crime fiction, and served as the fourth president of the Mystery Writers of America. He died in New York City.
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Copyright © 1937 by Lawrence G. Blochman
Cover design by Ian Koviak
ISBN: 978-1-5040-8575-5
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Lawrence G. Blochman, Bengal Fire
