THE COLONEL'S ENEMY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3113, 11 February 1909, Page 2

THE COLONEL'S ENEMY.

BY WINTHROP B. HARLAND. AtfQaor of "Lady Elgin's Secret," "A Harvest of Shame," "The * Elder Son," "Lord Ashton's Heir," Etc.

CHAPTER L—Continued. "St. Hilary would never forgive either; he ia at once the kindest, the ! gentlest, the most generous and ! most implacable of men; he measures J others by his own high standard, and ! in his fine integrity he would not, , ■under any circumstances, leave a debt unpaid or an obligation unfulfilled. In this spirit he dealt with all men, J and it was this that put him at the , mercy of the man who ruined him." I "I have heard part of that story from my sister," Mr Dacre said; "'he placed some money in the hands of a friend to invest tor the benefit of Mrs St. Hilary and Dora; the friend was supposed to have ab- , sconded with it; that is the version j as we have it." "There is little room for supposition in an act of deliberate treachery," said Lugard. "The friend was a man St. Hilary had known from boyhood, aMr Dallas Crombie, the head of a firm of Scotch merchants and bankers, with a branch in Madras and another in Bombay. When Mrs St. Hilary left India, now nearly seventeen years ago, she went to stay in Mr Crombie's house. He was a man of umblemished commercial reputation and moral character, and it was on these he built up a system of fraud which ultimately spread desolation into hundreds of homes. He was insolvent when he took charge of St. Hilary's money; it was with that money he made his escape to some country abroad, where the extradition treaty did not reach him. and there, after a time he caused a rumour or' his death to he circulated.* '•And has the colonel h-.ard that rumour was false?"

"Yes; an old comrade, who returned from leave of absence wichin the labt few months, is .almost s re t'jat he travelled in the same trai i with Crombie from Glasgow to Huston Square; he could not recall the identity of his fellow traveller at first, but it grew upon him by degrees, and he was certain of it, in hit own mind, when thinking of it afterwards."

"But he did not rest,satisfied with being certain in his own mind?" askDacre.

"I am sorry to say ihe did. He was pressed for time, and the few inquiries he made at the moment were futile. He employed a detective, but the trail was lost and could not be found again." "I do not see what other result any sane person could expect," said MrDacre; "and it was to the last degree unwise to revive the memory of an old injury in the colonel's mind, on the strength of an accidental resemblance. It might take such possession of St. Hilary to become a lasting hallucination, and no one can tell what the consequences may be to a man who is not iree irom heart disease, and has.suffered from sunstroke. I should earnestly advise you, as the one whose words have most weight, to persuade the colonel to dismiss it as an idle fancy. lam sure it could be nothing more." "Why should you be sure?" asked Lugard.

"It is simply a matter of common senße. This Crombie was a wellknown character, and a man of middle age, when he absconded with St. Hilary's money. .Now, middleaged men do not change much, say between forty and .sixty. They certainly do not change sufficiently to avoid recognition by the sharp eyes of interest and revenge. Is .it within the realms of probability that a hard headed Scotchman would risk his liberty, and his ill-gotten wealth, by venturing back into the very place where he would most .likely be known?"

"Pat it in that Jight," the major said, "it not seem feasihle." "As for the money," Mr Dacre went on, "whatever the sum may have oeen, I would rather pay it into his account than let the colonel embitter his days by a revengeful search for the man who may Jiave repented his misdeeds, and is, perhaps, beyond the reach of pardon. lam looking forward with pleasure to the arrival, so that he may b: another member of our little circle. We are very happy in our own way, major; and it would pain me if he, on whom so much depends, were to waste his lifetime and lower his noble character by an unchristian quest, with vengeance for irsmotive," "I should be sorry, too," Dora said, "and since he is no longer poor I hope he will forget and forgive the wretched man who wronged him." "It is not the money alone," the major said. "This same Crombie, for some raason never fathomed yet, made Mrs Hilary jealous of her husband, and he, a pure, high minded, sensitive man, suffered untold misery until the latter was investigated and explained. I, for my part, think it would be best to forget the man and forgive the evil he has done; but; the colonel is not to be reasoned with. Your influence, of course,' may do much; but his present intention is not to leave a corner of the earth unsearched; he will try, by all that is within human means, to find this JDallys Crombie, and give him up 10 a felon's punishment." Mr Dacre shook his head thoughtfully ani gravely. •"It is not a Christian task," he said; "and it is a dangerous one; for Crombie, if living, may have repented, and a repentant man may do strange things when driven tc despair, Unlass the colonel can think of him in a better spirit, 1 only hope thfse two men will never stand face to face, for I should not like to answer for what might happen to one of them." CHAPTER 11. MR DAL-RE'? HOBBY. It was a curious thing for Mr !)«•.« uj --IY, .u.jgh i.B ti.:gularity ■

did not occur to Maj. Lugard at the time. Miss St. Hilary's guardian was evidently a peacemaker, one of these born philanthropists who can be lenient in their judgment even of the worst of men; the natural kindness of his character spoke for itself in its conduct to Dora, and no one who sat in his company for half and hour could for a moment suspect him of hypocrisy. On consideration the soldier was inclined to agree with what his host had said already, and a remark he made a little later on. There might be some danger u Col. St. Hilary _ if ha persisted in his pitiless search for his treacherous friend. "We will suppose that Mr Crombie spread a false report of his own ueatn | for the sake of escaping his creditors," he said, "and we will, for the sak iof my theory, admit that he is still living. Now, most of these creditors would be dead by this time, and the remainder would write off their losses as bed debts. Crombie, I take it, was personally unknown to the majority, and Colonel St. Hilary would perhaps be the only one who could identity him. ' "The only one, or one of a very few," the major assented. "I am not pleading for the man," Mr Dacre went on; "his crime deserves the heaviest punishment that might be inflicted upon him; but tht.re is a side to the question which I think should .not be overlooked.; Crombie was in a desperate strait when he used the colonel's money; he ' may have repented the act as soon as I it was done; if he prospered, as with j his business .like ability and the | capital at his command, be very ; ,probally did, his first desire would i have be*n to ir.ake restitution."

"Why did he not, if he had it in his power?" " The answer is that he «vo'jld be afraid of Col. St. .Hilary. Frum •what you have told me if tnat man's .character, no man who had wmngtd .him could hope to be forgivei." "No man or woman either; to be .guilty of a dishonest action or a li« •would be to forfeit his regard forever, and he would never stand between a criminal and the law, even if ths criminal were his own brother or his own son. Apart from any .feeling he might have for a wrong done to him personally, he holds that. -to bring a wrongdoer to justice, is the sacred duty of every honest man, for thesake of.society." "To stern a doctrine for the days we live.in," MrDacre said. It is one that would close the door of rc--demption against many a repentant ; man, and turn remorse into a despairing bitterness which might easily lead the criminal to hide the trace of ! any crime by the perpetration of another. .In the case of Mr Crombie, for instance, be may be living a good life, under another name, eamintr j the respect of his fellows, the blessuings of the poor, and trying in every jto .atone for the past. If he saw exposure .imminent, the good work of | his better life in danger of being [swept away; knew that those he I,loved would shun him, like a leper, I might he not be tempted to siience, |in any way, the one witness who ! could, with a single word, ruin and disgrace ;him?" [to be continued.]