The Losing Game - A Novel (1910) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III THE USUAL HAPPY ENDING WHEN he stepped into the hotel Pound had very little of plan. There was very little within his knowledge upon which to build one. He had an impression that the man with the stick turned to look after him. His bag, brought by the bus driver, already stood on the floor of the hotel office in front of the desk. Behind the desk a sleepy-looking young man regarded him with a bored expectancy, and mechanically dipped the pen in ink for him to register. Taking the pen, Pound glanced over his shoulder. The man with the stick certainly had turned and was peering at him through the glass panel of the door. Pound wrote coolly, "J. W. Smith, Chicago." His eye ran up the page of the register. Five lines above the name he had written he saw, "Ellen White, Wyandotte," in Emma'shand. He noted that her room was number sixty- seven. Near the top of the page was "George Glass, Omaha," in Rexford's clumsy scrawl. He guessed that room sixty-seven would be on the third floor, so he asked for a room in that story. The upper floor was usually quieter, he explained. The clerk put "71" opposite his name, then came around and took up his bag to show him the way. The single incandescent lamp in the upper hall was set to burn dimly, yet it gave rather more light than Pound cared for. As they passed number sixty-seven he saw that it was dark and still. In his own room he waited a long time? namely, ten minutes by his watch. Then he turned out the light, opened the door very carefully and tiptoed into the hall. His heart beat fast, for in half a minute now he would know his luck. He stole to number sixty-seven and tapped very gently on the panel. No answer came, and he tapped a little louder, listening with all his ears. Then he gave a sigh of relief; luck was w...