As Kelson
gleefully anticipated, the spell acted in less than two days, and with
such success, that he was more than compensated for the monetary loss.
Shortly afterwards, Kelson received a frantic visit from another
Suffragette--a woman whose virulent sandy hair at once aroused his
animosity.
"Quick! Quick!" she cried, bursting into the room where he was
sitting. "Let me have a spell that will blow up every Cabinet
Minister, and their wives and families as well."
"Such an ambitious request as that, madam," Kelson rejoined, "cannot
be granted in a hurry. I must have time--to--"
"No! No! At once!" the lady cried, stamping her feet with
ill-suppressed rage.
"--to consider how it can best be done," Kelson went on calmly. "I
must have time to think."
The lady fumed, but Kelson remained inexorable; and directly she had
gone, he made a wax image of her, and taking up a knife chopped its
head off. In the evening, he learned that a lady answering to her
description had been run over by a train at Chislehurst--and
decapitated.
Kelson grew heartily sick of the Suffragettes. They were not only
plain but abusive, and he complained bitterly to Hamar.
"Look here," he said, "it's not fair. You and Curtis see all the
decent-looking women and shelve all the rest on me. I'll stand it no
longer." And he spoke so determinedly, that Hamar thought it politic
to humour him.
"Very well, Matt," he said, forcing a laugh.
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