The Councillors of Falconhoe

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 72, 24 March 1923, Page 22

The Councillors of Falconhoe

By FRED M. WHITE.

CHAPTER T. A PINK. CARXATIOX. It was drawing near to the dinner i hour Bii,l the I,ridge players in the (•mailer raid room of tho Mars and Jupiter I liil. had lined down to one j table ami there Uie rubber was in its liuiil stage. ■■"lour call, I think, Marquis," tho man on ili. , left (if dealer suggested. "What an original call of three spades?' , "Kvcii so. Colonel." the Marquis el Navarro smiled blandly. "The time passes and dinner draws near. .So 1 take the risk." "• 'Kraid I shall have to double you." Colonel Philip Enderby, late of the British Army, drawled. "Not a free 'double." his partner. Major (icorge Karneombe, once of Army lutelli- ; gence, hinted. "'However " The fourth man at l lie table regarded hi- companions serenely through his monocle. This was Hilary Jelicorse, lately attached to the Foreign Oflice, and gently squeezed out some time after the Peace celebrations. He described liimsc'' , whimsically as one of the tinemjilii;. i-d who was unhappily precluded! from accepting the dole. And there is! many a true word spoken in je^t. "Don't redouble, Marquis." he im- I plored. "If you do and it comes off, 11 am a ruined community." "But that is precisely what I am going to do." the Marquis el Navarro laughed. "Look at my hand, partner."! They were old friends these who had 1 seen much service and shared many ! perils in the hectic years 10141 S. though t he Marquis was a Spanish grandee and I presumedly neutral. And even now. in j the year of grace. 1022. there was much! to bo?done, and el Navarro had come over to London to discuss a matter that] had a sinister bearing nn the future; peace anil prosperity of Europe. What, that project was he had yet to learn, nor was he disposed to make much of it. He made his contract with one overtrick and took up his winnings as the others rose from the table. The big clock on the Adams mantelpiece drowsily proclaimed the half-hour after seven on a drift of silver bells. The Marquis still had a few minutes to spare. "I am very curious to know why you Falconhoe Councillors summoned mc from the seclusion of my palazzo in Madrid. - ' he said. "I am dining tonijlht with the Spanish Ambassador, so must be moving shortly. Give mc a hint. Jelieorse. Is it trouble in Russia or Germany! But that would seem to be impossible." ''Why?'' Jelicorse asked. "Suppose I told yon that there was danger from both—in league together. I am just hack from Germany and I know what I know. I have :n ray mind's eye a fine old castle near Findsburg in Prussia ■where there are concealed many heavy howitzecs and where the employees on the estate are camouflaged units of the once famous Iron Division of Brandenburg. Multiply that little lot by ten thousand and then ask yourself questions. And then imagine those infuriated junkers in accord with Russia with a perfect understanding with Lenin and liis fellow fanatic Trotsky. They were I fit Brest Lovitsk and afterwards. 'What then, Marquis?" The dark eye* of the Marquis gt r.med Despite his »£s, the oil spirit if adventure was deep in his breast. Moreover, he knew the men he was v.tlkin" to intimately. Neutral as he \r, r l sup" posed to be, he had done his share and more in the cause of freedom on behalf of democracy. Meanwhile time was drifting on. "It sounds promising,' , he murmured: I mean it sounds sinister. But in a few days I go with you to your stronghold at I'aleonhoe md there you shall tell mc everything. For the moment au revoir." "I must be off too." Jelicorse remarked when the Marquis had departed What, a linguist that chap is! His English is as good as ours at least. Are you two going to dine here? You are? Good! Then I can get you on the 'phone II I need you. So long." An hour later Hilary Jelicorse Jounged into the palm room of the -Wncourt and took his place at a small table which had evidently been reserved lor Him He dropped into his seat and surveyed the big throng of diners seated round the small tables under the shaded lamps and half hidden by banks of ~ the Tip P les of laughter and the half lights on colour and glittering gems it was as if there were no such things as trouble and care and hardship in the world. _ But Jelicorse had not come there to indulge in any cheap philosophy of that Kind though his own poverty since the Great Upheaval had been bitter enough And both Enderby and Farncombe were in similar sorry case. The country that was to be such a paradise for heroes to live in had proved, for the present at ay : y rate, a sorry land for Jelicorse and his peers. But Jelicorse w as here to-nijht with tho, C, M I l6 *° l bJeCt ' an<l he 1 ,1,4 S " cl > thoughts resolutely from his mind. \nd then as the dinner moved on he realised ti!!n"t n qUar ,. ry WaS not comin * that night Once he had come to thi* conclusion he turned his mind to what was going on around him.. And as he did so his attention suddenly froze and concentrated on a table a little wav ofll a table where three people were seated a woman and two men. ,2"°"™ >' oun S- »ot "-ore than t enty-five at the most. A slim, graceful woman with a figure a s perfect as that of the Venus of Milo, buVtall and *l featUreS aS re^lar a * 1 P we T rher ° reeks - Ve T dark slip, was dark eyes full of fine intelligence and intellect and a smile both faCC filSt rtvetad Jeull triSV '''Lγ" WHh Ler was ?°™S anil • I* v ° of birth and high breed.ng. There was a certain haughtiness about his clean-shaven face which spoke of one born to the purple and in the habit of being obeyed Spaniard or Italian beyond doubt. Then he turned slightly and Jelicorse reco--msed the young Duke of Lembaso, °a bpanish grandee with royal blood in his veins. It had been part of his business during the strenuous years to know all sorts and conditions of men, especially those who counted in the councils of Europe and so the feature of the young ffi of Lombaso were more or less familiar. His mother had been a princess and her eon had inherited her beauty. He was an attractive figure enough in his pride of manhood and race, though, now he

was laughing and smiling as if his fair companion was the one thing in the world that counted. Educated at Eton ! and Chri?t Church, his English was perfect and his knowledge of English wave ! and sports complete. I The third person of the party was big ' and bluff with a certain coarse arrogance that suggested the Prussian type as the world knew it at its best, or worse, before Armageddon. There was something cruel and sinister in his thick features and the insolent upward brushing of his thick reddish moustache after the , manner of Wilhelm before he fell, like Lucifer, never to rise again. "Oh, oh," Jelicorse murmured to himself, "Count Andra Barrados. what are you doing in that galley? If it comes to j that what are you doing in Londou at j all? If necessary, I will have you de-_ j ported, my half-bred Prussian. But not ! yet, not yet." ! For quite a long time Jelicorse ! watched the triangular dining party as if J lie were a spectator in the stalls studying a problem play. Then with a quiet gesture he summoned a waiter hovering i near, and more or less disengaged Mid 1 laid a ten-shilling note by the 3ide of j his plate. I "Alphonse or Carl as the case may be. though I hope not Carl, do you feel any wild desire to earn that interesting scrap of paper ?'' He spoke softly without looking up i and the waiter smiled, it might even i be said that he grinned. lie was a quite ! nice-looking waiter with clear blue eyes ! and the trim, erect figure of one who has ! known the stern discipline of the barrack i square, lie looked far more like a J gentleman than half the men guests dini ing there. I "What is it that you want, sir?" he ; asked. "You see the lady over there dining with those two gentlemen. Will you find out for mc if she is staying in the hotel? That's all." The note and tho waiter vanished simultaneously. In a few minutes the waiter was back again. He glided up to Jelicorse's chair, absorbed apparently in his duties and quite in the best manner of his tribe. He spoke in a bare whisper. "Pignorina Inez Salviati is staying in the hotel, sir." he said. "And alone, save for her maid. She is here to fulfil an engagement at Covent Garden Opera. Ji there is anything else, sir " "Good man," Jelicorst: murmured. "There is one little thing more. At the next table whence the festive diners have departed I notice a little arrangement of pink carnations. Could you hypothecate one and bring it here without unnecessary ostentation?" The waiter thought that he could and did. Jelicorse removed the flimsy laced rag and his finger bowl from his unused dessert plate and stripping four petals from the beautiful hothouse bloom laid them in a sort of square in the centre of "Rather neat, Alphonse. what!" he smiled. "A new idea in table decorative art. Now I want you to take this plate and exchange it for the one in front of the lady yonder. Just as it is without I disturbing my pattern. Xot difficult, ! Alphonse. I think, because I am afraid that you are not listening, Alphonse." "Why, good Lord, sir " the waiter be£ran. Jelicorse looked up swi[tlv and as quickly down again. But in that fraction of time he had seen all he wanted. "This is a etrange world, Niel, otherwise Alphonse." he murmured with the same absent air. "And I'm not sure that Wilhelm did not remodel it after all. But what is Sir Kiel Nelson, Bart., doing in the guise of a waiter at the Agincourt?" • "Broke," the man addressed as Niel Nelson snapped. "Poor enough before the big trouble. Joined up ac you know in the early days and kept hanging about Mespot till lately. Now money all gone, stocks eating their heads off and no dividends in the garden. Old place mortgaged to the crest tilee, and with this infernal taxation glad to part tor enough to put mc square. Brought up to do nothing, and not sponging on friends. Managed to get a billet here, ■but no worse off than thousands of sound chaps. Recognised you when you came in and didn't look at mc. Should have said nothing if you hadn't asked mc to work the old secret sign dodse you put mc up to when we had that little adventure together in Constantinople in 1016. Couldn't help crying out for the life of mc." Jelicoree listened with head bent over his plate. "Kotten hard luck." he murmured. "But if you are good for one of the old stunts I think I can make an opening for you. Meanwhile we are wasting time. Get on with it." From under his brows Jelicoree watched the progress of events at the table where the three people were dining. He could see the girl laughing and chattering gaily and catch some of the sallies that came from the Duke. The man with the hard, cynical face and the aggressive, upturned moustache smiled in his sinister fashion, but seemed more intent on weighing up his companions than entering into their sparkling discourse. He had the furtive, watchful air of one who half expects to bardetected in some crime. The waiter stopped by the table and. dexterously shifted the dessert plate for the one he carried behind him and displayed the four petals to the view or the one to whom obviously they were intended to convey either a message or a warning. Jelicorse, intently watching, saw her etop in the midst of some gay remark and change colour. Then before her younger companion could gather anything as to the cause of her confusion she had swept away the pink petals |and was her smiling self ag/ain. At the I same time those wonderful alluring eyes I of here swept the dining room slowly until at length they rested on Jelicorse for a fleeting instant and a message was flashed back to him, a message that he perfectly understood. The girl turned with perfect composure to her companions. "Mes aniLs," she murmured with a regretful droop of the exquisite lips, "this evening so delightful must end." "End!" the Duke cried. "I had hoped that it was just beginning. Surely you would not be so cruel " "But, alas, it is not in my hands," Inez Salviati replied. "I am but the slave of my public, for, behold, we singers are not our own masters. For some time now Monsieur Bragand, of the Grand Opera House, Paris, has been regarding mc reproachfully from his corner seat and waiting .'or the business I promised him. I beg you

to leave mc here, dear friends. As I am staying here in the hotel there ie no need of your escorts." Jelieorse watched the little comedy from out the corner of his eye. Almost he could hear the words epoken. Then he turned to the handsome young waiter by his side. He took a card from his case and clipped it across the table. "Call at the address about midday tomorrow," he said. "You will not be on duty at that hour. There are big things about to happen, Nicl Kelson, and there may be a place in the ring for you. At any rate 1 think I can prouilee you a better job than this." The other man murmured his thank.-, but Jelicorse was not paying the least attention —he was too busy watching the trio at the table on the far side of the gangway. He saw the young Duke of Lombaso bending- over {Tie hand ol the singer as he murmured his regretful adieux, he saw the Prussian Count swagger insolently, as he nodded familiarly to the girl and swaggered still more aggressively as he glanced at the rest of the diners there with a deep hatred in his heart of everything that savoured of tilings iKnglish. The freedom of London was his again after the lapse of the bloodstained years, for we arc a long-suf-fering, forgiving race, but the best clubs, the exclusive circles, the royal enclosures of Ascot and Goodwood would never ha his again. And deep down in that black heart of his Count Andra Barrndo* hated the Anglo-Saxon conqueror more than ever. It was all so different to what he and his congeners had planned. l?ut for the stress of dire circumstance he had never shown his face in the proud city on the Thames again. lie was gone at last and his companion with him and the swinging door had closed behind them before Jelicorse moved from his place and crossed over to where Inez Salviati was now seated alone. She welcomed him to her side with a smile that went to his head like so much wine. There was something intoxicating: about her dazzling, compelling beauty. In flamecoloured dress relieved only by one uncut emerald at her breast, she stood out from the rest as a thing apart. The marvellous regularity of her features might have been almost too perfect had it not been for the expression, that almost ndescribable charm which is more alluring than the artistic conception of the perfect in human loveliness. There was a soul shining behind that smile and a rare intelligence in the dark liquid eyes. There was something more too, but Jelicorse was too pleased to see Inez once more to think of personal things. "Four years," he murmured, as he took his seat. "And, behold, the lovely bud has opened into the perfect blossom. A strange contrast, my dear Inez, to our last meeting." "Say our last parting," Inez cried with her most dazzling smile and a warm welcome in her dark eyes. "We wore at tho crisis of the world's affairs then. The fate of freedom was trembling in the balance. It looked as if America had come in too late. Would she have come in at all but for you and mc? You have not forgotten the good work we did together in Mexico City. An English gpntleman and a mere girl who had one ambition—to sing before tho great ones of the earth. The contralto in a travelling opera company. And now I am on the threshold of my triumph." She spoke with but the trace of a foreign accent and her English was as pure as that of her companion. "And since that eventful night in the gardens of the Plazo we have never met," she went on. "Xot even to shake hands over our good work. W\hy did you so disappear, arnico?' , "'Alas, I was enatched away at a moment's notice," Jelicorse explained. "You remember how it was with us, a sign, a whisper, a nod in the street and five minutes later wo were o(T across the far side of the globp. The sign came, Inez, and I had no time even to write a line and even that might have been dangerous. Until chance brought mc here to-nigh' I nad lost sight of you. And now, judging hy the company you keep, little Inez Salviati is famous or on the way." "Then you have not heard? You have 'been too busy perhaps. Behold, I am made. My world tour has been a triumph. Soon I go to Madrid as prima donna. If I please them there all is plain before mc." "And tie old days are forgotten perhaps," Jelicorse sighed. "But never. Ah, I was happy then despite the danger." Jelieorse looked up swiftly. "You are on a tour of Europe," he said, "ft may be that you go to Berlin and Munich and Vienna?' , "To all three, my dear Hilary. If there is anything I can do for the sake of old times I am ready to —" "Then listen. But, no, one cannot talk here. I must see y,ou elsewhere. Inez, the peace of Europe stands in dire peril, though most people would scoff at the idea. And you can help to save it. Xone will suspect, you can move freely down the world because you are, as they will think, just a singer. What a chance! I can't te!l you yet, perhaps not for weeks, but when you are in Berlin—my dear girl, where did you get that uncut emerald frtfm?" Inez flushed almost indignantly. The question co abruptly flung at her fair head seemed to sting her. "Does it matter?" she shrugged. "la it that you have any right to ask? You are my good friend, but " , "Well, of all the meetings!" a gay voice broke in. "Inez Salviati, what on earth are you doing here? And Mr. Jelicorse too. I am going to insist on sin explanation. Come on, Peggy. They don't seem glad to see us, but you never know." CHAPTER IT. "TELL ENGLAND." The angry colour in Inez's cheeks, bred of Jelicorse's pointed question, died away and a pleased, delighted surprise lighted her eyes. "Peggy Pevensey!" she cried. "And Joan too. Ah, how the sight of you brings it all back." Two girls stood smiling there, two girls exactly alike save for the fact that one wae fair with blue ryes, and the other of a darker hue wi',h hazel hair and eyes to match. They were rather- small, with slender figures, smiling in an audacious way like schoolboys on some adventure, but proclaiming breed and blood in every line of them. The fine dainty figures clean cut, the little mouths and the short upper lips carried their own conviction. They carried with perfect naturalness the easy self-possession of caste despite their detached air of aloofness and the fact that the hair of each was bobbed. There was something almost smacking of the convent about their plain black evening ; dresses, which were absolutely devoid of ornament, but the cut -was there, the cachet of Paris which transforms hopsacking or the discarded sails of Thames barges into "clothes." Thus Lady Peggy and Lady Joan Pevensey, the famous twin daughters of his grace the Duke of Fairbourne, aged 24 years. "Well," Lady Peggy cried, "this is a meeting. The last time we three were [together was at Ushkub in 1918, Ah,

thosa were days. And our adventure in Serbia! There was some sort of fun in motor driving those days. And now you are a celebrity, Inez. Already the darling of 100 opera houses. Have you come to London to charm the ears of society? 1 should just love to hear you sing as you did at nights in that dreadful place, "but unless you give mc a free pass I shall never find the cash to pay." With tiiis open confession, Tvady Peggy dropped into a chair and helped herself deliberately to the contents of Jclieorse's cigarette wise. She might have belonged to some detached world where trouble and anxiety had no being. In anoV.ier chair opposite her sieter smiled benignly, itlso with one of the man's cigarettes between her dainty lip?. Nothing seemed to worry this smiling, inconsequent pair. "Now you know all about our monetary affairs," she said in a tone that might have reached the cars of a dozen diners. "We are poor Amazons broke in the wars. Xow how much do you think his Grace of Fairbourne has to live on? And keep us in the style wo have been accustomed to? Four thousand a year! Xot a bean more. With taxes and all that sort of tosh '.hat is all that is left. My dear Hilary, what do I care if the proletariat does hear? All the world knows it. Xo doubt it will all come righ*. in the course of hall a century or so, hut where shall we two be then, poor things?" ''It's true, Hilary, - ' F.ady Peggy smiled, as if family cataclysm were an excjuisi'.c joke. "There is a gathering of the family clans going on in a private sitting-room upstairs froni which Joan and self escaped. ,So we came down here to sec if there was any fun moving and foil into the hands of you two darlings. Hilary, can't you give tis some sort of a Foreign Ofliee job? Something in the spy or secret service lino. Our French is jierfret, anil for three years just previous to 1914 we were at school in Jtonne. Then nearly throe years with the forces in Serbia. Be a. little gentleman, Hilary, and help us. or necessity will throw 'us to the profiteers who mode fortunes out of nur calamities. I don't want to advertise myself as a girl of old ducal family, young, fair, and cultured, willing to exchange hearts with some presentable war profiteer with a million made for choice in the bacon trade. Hilary, it's very serious." There was a certain amount of meaning behind Jclicorse's smile. He knew, nobody better, that great e\ - ents were in the scale of the anguished nations— events which might never be. recorded in the newspapers of the day, but which, if not checked, might fet weary Kurope in a blaze once more. He knew these laughing girls, too, and the fine things they had done in the pas';, and what high courage and daring they concealed under the mask of Coinus. And he knew, also, what a woman might accomplish when it came to the matching of wits with a set of men fightinjr with their backs to the wall for all that was left of their old power and prestige and glory. "The thing ia not impossible," lie murmured thoughtfully. "We are not out of the wood yet by any means. But what would his grace say to you two being sent to Austria, for instance, on some mission by no means beyond *.he personal dancer mark?" "My dear Hilary," Lady Joan drawled. "We arc no longer in the dark ages when girls called their fathers 'pappa' and spoke only when addressed. The war killed all that. Honestly there is nothing leffc to Peggy and myself but bonnets and tenehops. I mean as business propositions. I did have a lovely dream once of an old Tudor house in a hunting country with some few thoueand acres of shooting, with a perfectly fitting husband to match, but what has become of him I haven't the faintest notion. If you think '' She broke off suddenly and gripped Jelieorse by the arm. "That man over there/ she gaeped. "The handsome waiter with the sad Russian eves. Call him over here, Hilary." The dining-room of the Agincourt was practically deserted now, it being the slack hour when moet dinners were over and the tide of supper parties not as yet due. As Lady Joan pointed to the unfortunate Niel Nelson Jelieorse understood. "Better not; worry him," he murmured. "Rather embarrassing in the circumstances. Besides, I promise you a [Chance of speaking to Kiel Nelson in more fitting surroundingß. Yes, it's poor old Niel right enough. Everything gone, no money left, no profession and " "Call him over here," Lady Joan commanded imperatively. "Oil, all right," Jelicoree shrugged. "But he won't like it. Don't forget that though he was once a baronet living in an old Tudor house in a good hunting country and —cr —fond of a certain lady, shall we say Erm.yn- j trude? he is a waiter at this moment and likely to be prosaically sacked if he is detected in the act of chatting with the 'hotel customers. Don't be selfish, Joan." "But, my dear man, if one isn't selfish these times how is one going to live? Look at that poor boy with his melancholy Slav eyes, his mother's eyes, and weep for him and his class. Oh, I know that the late Lady Nelson was not of the blood, but she was a Russian princess and a darling. Come here, Niel." Niel Nelson came eagerly and yet with lagging footsteps. He had the fear of the head waiter no longer "neiore his eyes; in fact, he had forgotten that omnipotent functionary altogether. "Queer sort of a meeting, isn't it?" he laughed unsteadily. Lady Joan regarded him with a watery smile. Perhaps she was thinking of the old Tudor house and the misty mornings when , the scent was breast | high, and Niel was piloting her over a | big prase country in the days which j peemino-ly were gone for ever. And Jeli- i corse watched with a real sympathy for i the dead romance. ! There were big things coming and j great chances in the near future for those who knew how to grasp the golden j opportunit}-. Only he and one or two others know how big the prospects were. And here was the help that the coun- I cillors of Falconhoe needed. Jelieorse knew that he could count on Niel Nelson | for one, he was sure of Inez Salviati for | another. But what about these girU? [ The woman in interna-tional j wae a tradition and a sheer necessity and the Pevensey twins had proved themselves a score of times. Were they not through the Serbian campaigns* Had they not faced worse than death , over and over again without flinching? ' And their French and German were without reproach. Yes. they would do, but ] what would the Duke of Fairbourne j have to say about it? It was at that j very moment that Lady Peggy answered ' the question for him. | "We are so glad to see you again, Niel," she said. "So glad to mingle our patrician tears with yours, old thins. .In the spacions days we went to the block together, at least our ancestors did: now we go to the workhouse together instead. Joan and myself had arranged to go chicken farming in—in Timbucktoo, wasn't it, Joan?—but;

Hilary Jelieorse has a better 'ole than that, or so hn declares. I do hope that you are coming along." It was all frivolous nonsense, of course, but there was a deal of feeling behind it, as Jelieorse knew only too well. "Pretty rotten, isn't it?" Nelson laughed. "But one has to live, and I Hatter myself that I look quite nice in my waiter"s kit."' '•'You don't," Lady Joan cried. "A blind man could see that you are a gentleman. It's a crying shame after jour war record." "Tell England," Lady Peggy interposed. "Tell England." "I have," Nelson said. "T was telling England for four years, and about ten millions of us formed the chorus. But it seems to mc that Britannia is a little deaf." "The yelling of politicians and screams rule the world single-handed ban destroyed the old lady's sense of hearing,' Jelieorse remarked sarcastically. "But we are all in the same boat, Niel. And things are going to happen before long ii our rulers are not wise to the eiglls on the political horizon. We shall want men and women to help or 1 am altogether wrong in my calculations. Inez will 'help, I know." "That I will," Inez cried. "But for my career and those professional engagements which I have contracted '" 'I would not have those cancelled for a moment," Jelicorw interrupted. -They will help, they will throw dust in the eves of the new foe. Sounds mysterious, but I will make it plain presently. But what will bis grace of Fairliotiriifl say?" "He won't say anything." Lady Joan laughed. "Uc" ia too busy scheming bow to keep bis d<>nr old ducal heart above water. Besides, you can't order Dames of the British Empire about like mere dutiful offspring. And. really. Hilary, you can't appreciate how ban tilings are with us at present. It's different with you." "Oh, is it!" Jelieorse said grimly. "I have had to let my place for live years, land the same remark applies to both Enderby and Farncombc. V. c have pooled resources and taken an old manor house on the high cliffs not far from thu lovely village of Lynton, in North Devon. Place called Falconhoe Manor House. Most secluded and romantic spot in England. There we have started as a sort of infernationaf detective agency, with branches all over Europe. Parties waited upon by our own line of 'planes. Wireless to Berlin and Vienna and Rome. Our wireless must ho seen to be believed." "I'd love to." Lady Peggy cried. "You shall," Jelieorse promised, ''but not yet. Niel is coming down there, as I can find a job for him. You three might make arrangements to stay for a short time at the Windy Bay post ofliee, where they let rooms in the summer. Ideal spot'and fine bathing. As we have no chaperon at the Falconhoe house we can't offer you all that hospitality. And if things go as I expect they will there will be some well-paid posts going lieforc long. Adventures on the Continent, thrilling episodee after the manner m the cheap press. Intrigues to solve; in fact the whole gamut of the sensational novel. Come in with us and prevent another European war. It's a great deal nearer than you imagine, as Count Andra Barrados could have told Inez just now if it had been worth his while." "You mean that, Hilary?" Uicz asked eagerly. '"I do, indeed. That man is one of the most infernal scamps in Europe, and he i 3 in the conspiracy up to his neck. But more of this at another time. The place is filling up with the supper crowd, and Niel will be getting into trouble. Now if you ladies will be so good as to clear out and get back to your tents 1 shall be grateful. Inez is staying in the hotel, and she will follow in a few minutes. Niel, the head waiter is scowling at you." Niel Nelson vanished discreetly, and the ladies Pevensey followed close behind. I Jelieorse detained Inez for a moment. "I asked yon a question just now," he whispered. "I wanted to know where you got that emerald from. Won't you tell mc?" "Indeed not," Inez sayl with cold dignity. '-You have no right to ask. Old I friends as we are, there are limits " ! Mie swept past him without another word.