The Deaves Affair Author:Hulbert Footner General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1922 Original Publisher: George H. Doran Company Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where... more » you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER V THE HAPPY LITTLE FAMILY AT the Deaves mansion next morning it was Alfred who opened the massive steel grill to admit Evan. The second man favoured him with a sly wink. "Cheese it, kid," he murmured out of the corner of his mouth. "They're layin' for you." This meant nothing to Evan. In the centre of the house where the hall opened up he found George Deaves walking up and down with his head bowed and his hands clasped behind his back, the very picture of a harassed man of affairs. There was a histrionic quality in all young Deaves' attitudes. The old man in slippers was hunched in a pseudo- mediaeval chair, while a fat servant, Hilton, the butler Evan guessed, was standing at the foot of the stairs. Another man in chauffeur's livery was beside him. It all had the look of a set scene, and from the way their faces changed at the sight of him, the inference was inescapable that it had been set for Evan. He wondered greatly what it was all about, but felt no particular uneasiness. George Deaves bent a venomous glance on him. "Follow me," he said hollowly. The whole procession wended its way up the winding, shallow stairs; first George Deaves, grasping thehand rail and planting his feet virtuously, then old Deaves, his heels coming out of his slippers at every step, then Evan, then the three servants. Evan heard them sniggering behind him. At the door of the library George Deaves said: "You come in, Papa. Hilton, Wilson and Alfred, you wait outside in case I call you." "Does he expect me to assault him ?" thought Evan. In the library young Deav...« less