THE COLONEL'S ENEMY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3120, 22 February 1909, Page 2

THE COLONEL'S ENEMY.

BY WINTEEOP B. HAKLAND. Authorfof "Lady Elgin's Secret," "A Harvest of Shame," "The Elder Son," "Lord Ashton's Heir," Etc.

CHAPTER Vl.—Continued. Taking the first volume that came, he found that he had picked up an old magazine containing a series of articles dealing with some well authenticated stories of undiscovered murders and mysterious disappearances. It was not lively reading, but after a careless glance through the first few lines he became interested, then absorbed; in fact, his attention was so completely taken that he did not know anyone was in the room till the waiter stood within a yard of him. "I beg your pardon, sir," the waiter said; "I would not have disturbed you, but there's a gentleman ■who wishes to see you most particular."

"Did he give you his r.ame?" "No, sir. He said I might mention Fletcher and Wyman." The colonel flung his book aside, and threw off his wrappings, as if endowed with new vitality.

Fletcher and Wyman were the agents he had employed to track down the man who had wronged him, and it might be that already there was news of his enemy. The very thought of it thrilled him with a vengeful exultation. Once within his reach, and he meant to show that man as little mercy as he had ever given to a tiger or a snake. "Let me see this gentleman at once," he said. The waiter went out and returned with a stranger, who, at first sight, the colonel saw was not a gentleman. He was tall, rather stout, stooped a little, and had iron gray hair, with a beard in which the same color was mixed with reddish brown. He might have been a discharged soldier, or a dismissed policeman, who had taken kindly to the unsavory trade of a private detective; and this was what the colonel took him for. "You are from Fletcher and Wyman?" he said. "How did you know I was here?"

"We never lose sight of our clients." was th2 respectful answer. ''We knew you were coming by th.e Dido; somebody else knows it, too. I am afraid, and as there is no time to lose, they thought it best to send me down at once." "By the somebody else, do you mean the man you have been trying to find for me?" "Yes, sir; we are pretty nearly sure of that; but he is so intensely respectable, and so well fenced i n by a high reputation and friends of good position, that we dare not venture to move till we are quite sure. Whether he has heard that you were on the way, or has had a hint from anyone that he was being watched, we do not know, but his furniture is being packed up and ha is going away." "When?"

"At any moment. Every hour's delay t)uts us in danger ol losing him. If you"could be in London to identify him some time to-day Mr Crombie would spend to night in a police cell, and be brought before the magistrate in the morning. But perhaps, sir, you are not well enough to travel? "Well enough?" said the colonel, fiercely. "I would be well enough if I had to drag one foot from the grave. I have only to write a few lines to leave tor a gentleman who will be he e at three and then I can go with you at once."

CHAPTER VII. j !

"I WILL NOT REST UNTIL I HAVE AVENGED HIM!" If the desire to stand face to face with his enemy once more had not amounted almost to a monomania, the colonel would not have been so easily induced to leave the comfortable hotel where he was waiting for his friends, and undertake this hurried journey to London with a s f ranger. Even had he been inclined to doubt Messrs Fletcher and Wyman's representative, his suspicions would aoon have been set at rest, for the man had a ready answer to ever/ question, and his perfect knowledge of the whole case could only have been gained from the agents whom St. Hilary had taken into his confidence. The colonel wrote a hurried note to Mr Dacre, telling him he was suddenly called away by one of Fletcher & Wyman's men, to identify the villian Crombie in London, and having seen that fraudulent miscreant in safe custody, he would go straight on to Mr Dacre's house in Canon Street. He could scarcely find expressions strong enough, as the thick-pointed stub pen clashed vengefully across the paper, leaving many a blot and smear in its track; but the fiery veteran did not stay to rewrite or revise ; just as it was he inclosed it in an envelope, and gave it to the waiter. "You will give this to the gentleman who calls for me," he said, putting a sovereign at the same time into the attendant's hand. "I expect Mr Dacre before three, and the major a few hours later. Tell,"*Mr Dacre I should like him to wait till the major comes, by that time they will hear from me." _ The waiter said "Very well, sir!' and put the letter in his breast pocket of his napless coat. He was thinking that the colonel looked by 110 means fit to travel, and, with the observant curiosity of his class, he was making a close and not entirely favourable study oi the colonel's companion, who had helped the colonel with his overcoat, and put the strips round his rugs. The waiters at the Cornwallis noticed how very respectful and attentive the stranger was; he came back at the last moment when he had placed St. Hilary in the c rri'igc. "B ■ sure you don't forget to give .Mr Dacre the colonel's ncte," he said, '

"and see that his friends have everything they require; and you had better have a fire in the colonel's bedroom." "Then you are coming back, sir"'" "Oh, yes!" the stranger said, as if surprised at the question; "some time in the evening. We sire only going to Crewe, but it is very important business, a matter of life and death. The colonel is not well enough to travel, but he will go, and I shall take every rare of him." It was rot for the waiter-to say wiiat was in his mind, but he confided it to his second in command, as soon as the carriage had driven away. "Whoever has sent for him from Crewe had hotter have come here to see him," he said, "for I never saw a gentleman less fit to travel. Shouldn't wonder if he were taken ill on the way." "It would have to be some profitable business that would take me from here to Crewe on a day like this!" the second waiter said. "I suppose the one he is gona with is an old friend of his. "Not a bit of it; quite a stranger. The colonel had never seen him before. I never saw any .me so excited as the colonel was when I told him it wasj some one from—let me see, where did he say he was from? I could not till you now for a fivepound note, but the colonel could not have been more excited if some one had given him an electric shock unawares." "I heard the names," the second waiter said. 'Fritchard and Lyman, I think, but I forget for the moment; they sound like a firm of lawyers to me, and I fancy I have seen their names in print, but [ don't remember where." They were not very busy at the Cornwallis just now, or the two waiters would have given less time to St. Hilary and the stranger who had taken him away so suddenly; as it was, some trifling incident turned the conversation, and they thought no more about him till the London train came in at a quarter to three, and Mr Dacre arrived at the hotel a few minutes afterward; he evidently expected to find the colonel there, and seemed deeply disappointed at his absence. "He left this note for you," the waiter said, when Mr Dacre had given his name; "and told me to say he would like you to wait for the majr.r, and by the time the majorcame you would hear from him."

"For the colonel?" "Yes, sir." "At what time do you expect the major?" "The colonel did not say, sir; he did not name any particular time, he only said the major would be here a few hours later; but they have only gone to Crewe." "He does not say anything about Crewe here," Mr Dacre said, reading the note slowly. "He tells me he is called away suddenly on important businpss in London, and will go straight to my house in Canon street. How am I to reconcile that with your statement that he is only gone to Crewe." "That is what the other gentleman said, sir. He came back from the carriage on purpose to tell me. He said you were to have everything you required, and we were to have a fire in Col. St. Hilary's room." [to be continited.j