Reading.
Get started

Library / Literature & Fiction

The Gates of Chance

by Van Tassel Sutphen

Pages
about 195
Category
Literature & Fiction
Language
English
Reading time
3.6 h at 250 wpm
Start readingThe whole book, as cards or one word at a time. 2 h at 450 wpm in Read mode.

From the opening

Jeckley looked gloomy. "Nobody seems to know him," he said. "And the name isn't to be found in the directory, telephone-book, or social register."

Wonderful fellows, these newspaper men; I never should have thought of going for Mr. Indiman like that.

"A mystery, my son. The card was shoved into my hand not half an hour ago."

"At Twenty-third and Fourth. There were a lot of people around, and I haven't the most distant notion of the guilty party."

"There maybe a story there--who knows. Besides, it's directly on my way to the Globe, and the curtain is not until eight-thirty. Tell you what, old man; come along with me and see the thing to a finish. Fate leads a card--Mr. Esper Indiman's--and we'll play the second hand; what do you say?"

I declined firmly. God forbid that I should be featured, along with the other exhibits in the case, on the first page of to-morrow's Planet.

"So," he assented, indifferently, and pushed his chair back. "Well, I must push along--Lord! there's that copy--the old man will have it in for me good and plenty if I don't get it down in time. Adios!" He disappeared, and I let him depart willingly enough. Later on I went up to the library for a smoke--no fear of encountering any Jeckleys there, and, in fact, the room was entirely deserted. I looked at my watch; it was ten minutes after seven, and that gave me a quarter of an hour in which to think it over. Should I accept Mr. Indiman's invitation to call?

I looked around for an ash-tray, and, seeing one on the big writing-table in the centre of the room, I walked over to it.

There were some bits of white lying in the otherwise empty tray--the fragments of a torn-up visiting-card. A portion of the engraved script caught my eye, "Indi--"

A short sample. Read the whole book

More to read

Public-domain text from Project Gutenberg, Standard Ebooks or a similar open source. Copyright differs between countries. Rights holder? See our takedown process.