form without permission of the publisher.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
CONTENTS
| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
|---|---|---|
| I | Suite Number 403 | [3] |
| II | Friends or Enemies? | [15] |
| III | The Shadow on the Wall | [33] |
| IV | The Crimson Patch | [52] |
| V | Who Took It? | [70] |
| VI | The Mystery Deepens | [79] |
| VII | Left Alone | [95] |
| VIII | A Piece of Paper | [103] |
| IX | A Message in the Night | [112] |
| X | A Council of War | [126] |
| XI | An Adventurous Mission | [133] |
| XII | The House with the Green Shutters | [146] |
| XIII | Virginie Decides | [172] |
| XIV | Melanie | [184] |
| XV | Out of the Net | [194] |
| XVI | The Secret of the Crimson Patch | [205] |
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
| "You want to warn me.... What about? I don't understand" | [Frontispiece] |
| FACING PAGE | |
|---|---|
| "You see!" whispered Virginie, clinging to Patricia spasmodically | [50] |
| "O, Melanie, let me stay just a few moments!" | [140] |
| Melanie stood in the doorway surveying her with stern surprise | [192] |
THE CRIMSON PATCH
CHAPTER I
SUITE NUMBER 403
So this was to be her home—and for three long months! Patricia Meade dropped her suitcase on a convenient chair and gazed curiously about her. A hotel bedroom, with stiff-looking twin brass beds, two willow rockers, one straight chair, an imposing mahogany bureau and one small table—absolutely all the furniture, if one excepted the stiff draperies at the windows and one or two not particularly artistic pastel pictures adorning the wall. Through a door and across the intervening sitting-room she could see another bedroom similarly equipped.
In the sitting-room, her father, Captain Meade, was tipping the grinning bell-boy who had brought up their luggage,—a snub-nosed, blue-eyed, curly-haired young chap whose gaze was rivetted adoringly on the captain's khaki uniform. When the boy was gone, the captain turned to the door of Patricia's bedroom.