THE HONOURABLE JIM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10407, 3 April 1897, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE HONOURABLE JIM.

BY It. J. CHARLETON, Author of "A Successful Dramatist," "Hector Cloak," "Margeryßutherford," " Widdrington's Atonement," "A Lost Opportunity," "C&slleKilnth/'etc [COPYRIOIIT.] CHAPTER XXIII. FURTHER INQUIRIES AND SEARCH AFTER I'KGKAU. The life of a London Criminal Investigation Inspector is not an idle one, but it so happened one afternoon that Michael Harvey had nothing very particular to do for half an hour or so, and sat in his office rather idly drumming on tho desk with his penholder, fle was thinking of Amos Pegram's case, and wondering whero that personage had disappeared to. He had no doubt in his own mind that both Mintern and Wilcox had to do with his disnppoarance, and had serious doubts that thoy might have murdered him, or caused him to be murdered.

These doubts were teropored, however, by the to him strange behaviour of the two men since the disappearance. They had seemingly taken tho doepost interost in the pearoh for him, and nob a (lay had passed but one or both of them had called at Scotland Yard to hoar if anything had been discovered concerning him. Mintern ospedaily soetned almost frantic in his desire for news, and as timo passod on and nothing was heard he becaino exceedingly low in spirits and quite changed in ni» manner. All this mighb be acting, of cour/io; acting to throw dust in tho oyes of tho police; but, if so, it was very clover acting, very liko tho real thine, and miraculously well sustained. Tho Inspector was sitting thinking of all these rhinija, idly drumming on tho desk meanwhile, and feeling in his own mind that lie should novor see Amos Pegram again, when there was a tap at tho door, and a telegraph boy entered. " Tologram, sir," said tho boy, saluting in military style, and waiting to see if there was any reply. Harvey took up the buff onvelopo and oponed it carelessly—he was accustomod to rocoive many such in tho day—but his caroless look vanished whon he read the raossngo. And well it might, for id was as follows :— To Inspector Harvpy, Scotland Yard. I am all rlillt. A. Peoram. The telegram had been handed in at tho Chipping Ongar olDoe only an hour proviously, and soemod genuino on the face of it. Only, a dotective is suspicions if he is anything, and someone might have sent thia message merely to lull him into the assuranco that the missing man was safe and thus stop any further soaroh, The only persons in tho world ho knew of likely to thus ondoavour to deceive him were Mintern and Wilcox, and to each of them he sent a messenger with instructions to seo them personally and tell them ho had news and wished to soo them at once. Thoy were both ab home, and this showed that had they sent the message they must havo employod someono to go to Chipping Ongar and despatch it. Yet this seemed unlikely; tho probability was tliat the message was genuine. It was with hoartfelt joy that he camo to this conclusion. Both iMintorn nnd Wilcox came posthaste on receiving the message. " Chipping Ongar," cried the Honourable Jim. " Where's that?" "It's not far from Audloy Court," answorod Harvoy, producing a railway guide with map. " There it is." "I'll go at onco," cried Mintorn, much excited. " I may be able to flnd him this vory day. Come, Wilcox, let us be off." "I think, Mr. Mintorn," eaid Harvey, "you had bettor let me go with you instoad. Thero may be some difficulty iu finding him, for the only address we have is the telograph otfico. I may be able to holp you with my experience in these sort of things." "All right," cried Mintern, "I don't care who goes so that we only Had him, Led us loso no time. Call a cab, Wilcox." " Don't trouble," said Harvey, who had just touched a bell a little while before. " The cab is nlroady at the door. Are you ready?" " Uoady 1" cried Mintern, striding to the door and jumping into tho cab, followed by Harvey, " Liverpool-street," said the latter to tho cabman, and off they went, Wilcox watohing them until tho cab turned the corner and disappeared. " I'll be hanged," said he to himself, ae he strolled off. " I'll be hanged if that isn't one of the queerest things I ever saw in my life. Jimmy Mintern fib to break his neck to see that fellow Pegram. If anybody had told me a fortnigbb ago thab such a thing would happen I should have bet him a thousand to one against) it." Tho post and telegraph office at Chipping Ongar waa also n grocer's and general dealer's shop. The postal branch of the business was attended to by a young lady, who ant in s little office divided off from the shop and dispensed postage stamps and postal orders through a semi-circular hole in a screen of woven wire, which protected her desk from possible pickers and etcalers. The arrangement has its advantages, bub there is something to be said against it as well. Thus, when Inspector Harvey, followed by Mintern, entered the shop, and going to the wire screen, handed the telegram in, and asked tho young lady if she remembered sending it, and what kind of a person had left it, and if she knew them and their address, she said yet; she remembered sending ib very well, and the person who handed ib in was a young man, bub she couldn't see people very well for tho screen, unless she stooped down tnd looked through the semi-oircular aperture, and of course that was a bother, and she didn't know the porson'e name and addresi, and wouldn't know him again if she saw him, only he bad a scarlet tie and a peacock feather in his felt hat.

M intern stamped hie foot with vexation when he heard this rigmarole; but Harvey, well used to all kinds of checks, asked the pirl and tlie other persons in the shop a few more questions and left. The shopkeeper said he had teen the young man. Hβ was quite a stranger, and looked like a tramp; but he had not taken particular notice. '' Cursed idiot I" exclaimed the Honourable Jim. " What are their eyes made for, I wonder 1 What are we to do now? It seems to me we might as well have stayed at home."

"It's no use losing one'a temper and getting impatient," remonstrated Harvey. "That's all very woll for you," grumbled the other; "but if you had aa much as I have depending upon getting alongside of this man, you would not be so easy about it."

" The beet thine I can do for you is to find him," said Harvey* quietly. ."Very well, then, the beat) thing for me to do with

R view to this is to keep quiet and think it over. Come into the inn here and we will sit down for i> few minutes and give it a thought." Mintern wi>s for dashing off nt once in pursuit of l'egram. Asked where, he answered anywhere, so long as they were only moving ; he could not bear to sit still, but at length, conquered by hie companion's quiet determination, ho consented to sit down and have some brandy and soda. Harvey ordered a glass of ale, and when the landlord came in had some talk with him. Describing l'egram's person and dress, he asked him if he had seen such a etranger in the neighbourhood, but he said he had seen no such person ; if he had he would havo remembered sucb a person as was described.

" I think our best plan will bo to drive over to Audley Court," said Harvey. " Sir Joliu may have heard something of him. Have you a trap you could let us have, landlord ?"

"I.havo a very nice dogcart and a good horse," nnswered tho landlord. "Shall you want a drivgr ?"

"No, we'll drive ourselves," was the answer; and the nice dogcart and tho good horse were brought round, neither, however, so nico or as good as might have been desired. Harvey took the reins, tho Honourable Jim refusing to do so. It was bad enough, he said, to have to sit behind such a scrow, let alone to drive it. In due time, however, they reached Audley and were shown in to Sir John's room. No, he had heard nothing of Pegram, he said. Clearly the porson must have absconded. Perhaps he had done something. His evasion was evidently intentional, or something must have been seen of him.

Then Harvey told him about the telegram, and their visit to Chipping Ongar. He continued; "My idea is that he must havo been somewhere in the neighbourhood ever since he disappeared. Is there any inn or farmhouso where he could have put up?" " Plenty of places," replied the baronet. Then he ran through a string of names of which Harvey took note. "Our only plan," said he, "is to go systematically round tho whole lot and inquire. Surely somebody has seen him, or heard toll of him at least. A stranger could nover hide himself from a whole country side."

The Honourable Jim professed himself as willing to accompany Harvey on this round of visits, and thoy aeb oft there and then, and culled on all the nearest) places until darkness came on, when they took back the tired horse to his homo at Chipping Ongar. Noxt day they continued the search, but this time Sir John Audloy lent them h dogcart and a linren t.lut even the Honourable Jim did not disdain to drive, and they ' called at all die resD of the places. But wherever they called the reply to their queries was Iho ,«:iinn; no one had seen or oven heard tell of Amos Pegram except that he was missing of course. Bo thoy wore fain to go back to London boaten. Tho Honourable Jim was in despair. " I'll toll you what it is, Harvoy," eaid he. "If you can flnd Pegrnm within a month I'll give you a thousand pounds." "I'll try my best," said Harvey. J iimes Mintern ?pont his time after this in alternately haunting Scotland Yard and the city, At the former place ho called aoveral times a day to inquire if there was any news of the missing man, and the rest of the time ho spent in tho city vainly trying to get some enterprising company promoter to take over the mint; at any sacrifice. 'it length lie came to the conclusion, which for a long time had been a foregone one, but which he had tried to hide from himself, hoping against hope, that without l'egram ho could do nothing. In tho midst of the desperation cnuaod by this thought an idea occurred to him—an idea which had long boon dimly floating at the back of his mind, and only now took definite shape. It was, indeed, a forlorn hope, but drowning men clutch at straws, and he might be able to carry it out. Tho idea was that he should go north to his brother, the earl, and try to induce him to buy the mine, or at least lend tho influence of his name to float a local company to buy it. Thero eeome no am, at any rato, he concluded, of his staying in London, vainly waiting for news which never came. Ho might as well go north at once. So, nfter a last parting interview with Miohuol Hurvoy, who promised to communicate anything of importance concerning I'egritm which might turn up, the Honourable Jim departed for his childhood's home, Glendyko (Jastlo. The very day after, Simmons was very comfortably omployod sitting reading in hie master's own particular armchair, smoking one of his master's shilling Havanas, ami sipping a glass of hie master's choicest wine, whon a tap was heard at tho outer door. Simmons opened it, and outside on tho landing found A young man dressed throughout in a suit of curded velveteen, and wearing a vivid red neck-cloth and a soft felt hat, with n piece of peacock's foathor stuck in one side of it, His trousers were rnthor tight in the leg, and altogether ho had the air of having something to do with horses.

" Well, young man," said Simmons, superciliously and rather angrily, as became one disturbed in the midst of enjoyment such as his. " Well, young man ?" " Woll, old man," retorted the visitor, not at all aba.shod by the haughty domeanour of the valet, hut seemingly nithor tickled by it. " Well, old man, is your guv'nor at home? ,.

" What do you want with him?" "What business is that of yours? You'vo not answored my question, I'd advise you to do so quickly, for I'm from someone your guv'nor is dying to see." Simmons descended from his height, and became at once conciliatory. "My master is not at home," said he. " Who sent you to ssk, if I may inquire!" "You may," said the youth. "Ib was Mr. Pogram." "Oh ! Air. Pegram, was it? And where is he?"

"That's tellings. Never mind where he be. The question is—whore is your guv'nor ? For he wants to see him." " Toil him Mr. Mintern has gone to Glendyke Castle. You'll not forget the name? Ulondyke Castlo, the seat of his brother, the Earl of Glendyke, You're sure you won't forget the name?" " What! Forget the name of Glendyke Cattle ? It's scarce likely, old cock, that I (Ijould forget Glendyke." fifimmons stoically pub up with tho irreverent designation, and used all his persuasive pavers to induce the young man to divulge Pegram's whereabouts, ovon inviting him to have a glass of wine, which he refused, but all to no purpose. Tho young follow would tell nothing except that Pegram was nob in London, and departed, leaving Simmons to the enjoyment of his master's luxuries. The valet, before re-lighting his cigar, wrote out a telegram to his muster, and sent it off by the hall porter. It merely stated that a messenger had called from Pegram, asking where he (Mintern) wag, but would nob tell whore P. was except that he was nob in London. This telegram he confirmed by letter the same evening. The next afternoon Inspector Harvey received a letter. To his joy he saw ib was from Amos Pegram, but his countenance rather fell as he read the contents. It ran ae follows :—

My dear friend,—Do not think me ungrateful (or the many kindnesses I have received at your hands and those of Mrs. Harvey, because I have not written sooner. I have been sick and could not write, though I inatiigril to scrawl a wire a week or so ago just to tell you I was alive. I am now nearly well, anil am starting; for the north, where I hate just heard a certain party is whom I long wish to see. Kemoniber me kindly to Mrs. Harvey, and always believe me Your grateful friend, Ahos Pegium.

The letter bore no address, but the postmark eliowed it had been posted at the Goneral Post Office, St. llartin'sle-Grand. To judge from this fact, it might then be supposed that Pegram was in London; but, of course, he might have sent it by messonjjor to be posted there. There was no saying. The main point) was that the young man was eafe, and getting well. There was no doubt about that now. It was his own handwriting, that was unmistakable. Nothing could be done to find him ; nothing, indeed, could be done at all except write to James 11 intern and tell him of the letter.

The detective, therefore, wrote to Mintern by the next poeb telling him exactly what the letter said, and that ho (Mintern) had better wait at Glendyke until Pegram arrived, which could not be very long. The Honourable Jim demurred at this, longing to rush off to the south at once. And while he was thus fuming and fretting and impatiently waiting, let US (96 what has become of Ansa P«g»m.

CHAPTER XXIV.

FPRTHER AnVKNTPRKS OF AMOS PEIiKAM.

On that same day that Amos Pegram went to seek the Honourable Jim at Audley Court anybody walking eastward along the Clielmsford road might have seen in the distance, coming towards him, a huge affuif like a house on wheels, which was drawn by two horses. On nearer approach he would havo seen that this huge affair was a caravan, made to look large? than it really was by thequantity of brushes and basket work, clmirs, cradles, tables, and baskets of all sorts, which were piled up on the top and hung all around it. Tho horses drew the caravan at a brisk pace along the road. The vehicle was driven by a young man who sab in front, and by his side walked four persons, another young man, a boy, a woman, and a girl. At length the caravan reached that part of the road which had on one side of it the park wall of Audley Court-. Amongst the trees the pheasant shooters could be heard busily engaged, and now and again a startled bird whirred from amongst the trees and crossed the road. The caravan stopped and the driver jumped down.

" Here !" oriocl he to the girl. " Here, Leah, get up and take the reins while Luke and I get over tho wall and seo if we can pick up a bird or two." " Let me go with you, too, Isaac," cried the little boy, eagerly. "No, David, yon must Stay aud help your mother and Leah to look after the horses and van. Some wicked people might come while wo are away, and what would tho women do without a man to stick up for them ?"

The boy seemed mollified by this appeal, and began to strut and assume an air of great importance, seeing which the woman matched him up in her arms and kissed him. " Yes," she cried ; " that's my brave little David. He'll e tay and take care of bis mother and Leah, will he nob?" " You shouldn't lift up a man and kiss him like that, mother, when he bas to take care of you women, I must geb the horses some corn." Saying which he wont to the back of the van, took down tho nosebags aud slung them over the horses' heads. The animals with their noses inside the bags began to munch contentedly. Meanwhile the two young men had climbed the low park wall and were making their way cautiously through the wood in tho direction of the firing. They had almost gained the rear of the shooting party when (.hey saw someono nob far from them amongst the trees. It was an under koeper collecting the dead birds. They stopped, fearing to be seen, and one of them dived into a thick part of the wood where the bnehea grow close together round an enclosed inner space. " Come in here till he goes away," whispered tho first to enter; then next moment gave an exclamation of surprise and horror. "Good heavens!" he cried. "What's this?"

The other young man crept up to him where he knolc on the ground beside the body of a man which lay stretched out at lull length, apparently dead and with a patch of blood covering the back of the head and neck, which wero exposed to view as ho lay on his face. "Help me to turn him over. That's it. He has been shot. Perhaps an accident, who knows ? Let us tret away and leave him as soon as possible. If they find us here we shall be blamed." " Hold on," said the other, placing his hand over the heart of the senseless figure. " Hold on. I believe he's still alive. And I believe, too, I'vo eeeu him before somewhere. Where can it have been ? Do you know him, Isaac?" " Let us get away," said Isaac, looking round uneasily. " And leave a man to die ? Not me, Now I know who he is. Do you remember the stranger who slept with us the night before thegrouse? Hocame from ncross the seas, and mother told his fortune. Yes, it is the very man; and thero has been an accident, or someone has ebob him purposoly. We cannot leave him here to die alone, and if we go and toll about him they will lock us up for trespass. I'll tell you what. We'll take him.with us."

" No," said Isaac. "It's too dangerous, and what good would it do ? What can we do with him?"

"Takocareof him and nurse him. He was onr father's guest and friend, and I should like to see you go home to father ami tell him you'd left his guest lying in his blood to die liko a dog. 1 should just like to seo that, Como, bear a hand, or I shall carry him myself." Isaac, so appealed to. took the legs of the unconscious man, while his brother took the uppor part, and they drew him from the thicket and then slowly and carefully bore him through the trees towards the wall. Hero they laid him down, and Isaac mounted the wull at his brother's request. The waggon was still in the road, and at a signal the women approaohod the wall full ol curiosity. " You musb havo got a good bag," said the girl Leah, seoing her brother Isaac hauling and straining at something the other brother Luke was lifting towards him.

" Heavens! it is a dead man,"sho almost shrieked, as the helpless burden was hoisted to the top of the low wall and supported there on tho coping stone by Isaac. The woman bade her hold her tongue, and assisted the two young men to lower the body of Amos Fegram, for, of course, it was nono othor than he, to tho roadside. Then she looked keenly into the face of tho prostrate man. "It is the stranger from over tho sea," she cried. "The stranger who sought Glendyko and has not kept his word to me. Let us put him in the van and tako him home. Leah, do you get inside and take his head in your lap, to we him from the jolting of the stones. Bub where did you tind him, and what has befallen him ?"

Luke told her the whole story. " You did right, Luke," she Haiti. " And you, Isaac, were wrong. What would my brother have paid had we gone to him without the stranger? Lead on the horses slowly and let us make homewards." Luke took one of the horso? by the head, and the caravan moved on, not with the brisk movement with which it had come down the road, but slowly as a hearso. Just as ib Bet forward the young man Isaac ran to the park wall, and lighily climbing it, disappeared on the other side. In a very few momenta he reappeared and came swiftly after them down tho road with something hanging over his shoulder. " There," panted he, ae ho swung four brace of pheasants into the van. " There, we need nob lose our supper although wo have found a man."

And so they marched onwards down the road until the night began to fall and the stars to come our., Pegram all this while lying insensible, his head in Leah's lap. " We had better stop here and camp for tho night," said Kachol Lee, the elder woman of the party, the same Rachel Lee we met onco before at the foot of the Cheviots. "It would be dangerous to travel the crossroads in the dark with our friend so very ill. It might be his death if we came to any rough ground." " Wβ might have been home by now, or in a very short time, if we had loft him," grumbled Isaac. " Better to be late in getting home than to desert a friend in trouble," said Rachel, and LurtO murmured assent.

The place where they had stopped was close by a triangular piece of unenclosed grass land, and on to this the van was drawn aside.

A great fire was lib in the open air near the end of the van, and Bupper was cookod and heartily eaten. They did not have the pheasants, preserving them as a dainty for those at home, and contenting themselves with a stew of mutton, ham, and potatoes, which wont down very well after their day's tramp. Thoy had been to Chelmsford for two days selling baskets. Supper over, n tenb was pitched for the two women close, by the fire, nnd soon they were comfortably ensconced therein and warmly wrapped up from the keen night air. Then the two young men and the little boy David made up their beds in the van beside Pegram. Before lying down Luke crept up to have a look fit their puesfc. Hβ motioned to little David to come and hold the candle while he readjusted the bandage which Rachel had tied round the patient's bend.

Next morning the caravan resumed its way, still slowly travelling westward along crossroad;, through n pleasant country, past many a stately mansion, many a wooded park, pretty village, and comfortable farmstead. And still within that caravan Pegram lay insensible, which fact will explain why id was that no trace of him was left behind ia the neighbourhogcl

rest."

of Audley Court aud why the search of Michael Hu-vey and Mintern had been so fruitless Ab length in (he afternoon they reached a different sort of country, and the road, instead of running between fields and open space, began to wind in mid out amongst the trees of a sorb of unenclosed park. And soon tho rond disappeared altogether and became i» mere footpath, and the caravan ran eoft and smooth over a thick carpet of dead loaves—last year's leaves— while before and behind they were encompassed by tho massive trunks of woodland giants i as a matter of fact they were in tho heart of tho famon* Epplng Forest. Emerging from the trees into an open space they saw beside a tire other two vans like their own drawn up, and seated beside the blaze a man and woman, botli elderly. " What ever in the world has kept you," cried the man rising to his feet and coming to uieec them. "Wβ expected you back last night. Anything gone wrong ?" The man who asked this question was Ben Lee, the gipsy, nnd the woman who still sat ac the fire motionless was his gipsy wife.

Lee's sister Rachael answered her brother.

" We fell in with a friend of yours on the way, and he is eorely wounded. So we brought him on with" us. Mount into the van and see him, and tell us if we have done right." Old Lee climbed into the van, and after eome time came forth.

" It is tho stranger who came to us on the hills," said he. " You did quite right to bring him, Rachel. But what has happened to him ?"

"It is thought lie has been shot," she answered. " But he has never once spoken, and we know 1106 bow ib came aboub."

" If he die on our hands ib is likely to get us into trouble," said Isaac, surlily. "If they had listened to me, he would have been left behind."

" Shame on you, boy," cried his father. " I should have gone back for him myself had you told me you had left him behind. Now all of you assist. Old woman, make ready my own bed for him, and you boys come and help me to carry him on his mattress, and you, Rachael and Leah, walk on either side and steady him. David, loose out the horses."

The old man's commands were promptly obeyed, and Pegrain was soon transferred to a comfortable bed in Lee's own van, the largest of the lot, and the old woman, Loe's wife, who had once told the patient's fortune, examined his hurts and applied such remedies as she possessed and considered suitabio for the purpose of healing his wounds.

" That's all very well, old woman," said Lee, while she was so busied. " Thab'e all very well, and 1 don't suppose any doctor chap in the world could do more for him. But we must remember that in case he should die the gorgios would make a terrible outcry did he not have one of their own doctors to seo him. Do you, Luke, mount at once and ride to Epping and fetch a doctor to see to his hurts."

The young man, Luke, bridled a horse and rode off northwards through the forest. In about an hour he returned, bringing with him a stout young man, prematurely grey, who rodo a useful-looking cob, This was the surgeon from Epping, and very soon he was examining the patient. " Gun-shot; wound," he said, looking up. " An inch lower and he would have been a dead man. The charge has passed just over the top of his head, nnd only a few stray pellets have hit him. Still that's bad enough. It will be a long time before he is able to geb about. I must extract the pellets, and then there is nothing but quietude, careful nursing and time for him." "Then you think he will get) better, doctor ?"

" There's one thing in his favour. He is strong, and I should say he has a splendid constitution. How did it happen f " Well, you see, there's none of us rightly knows," said Lee, as he watched the surgeon probing for the leaden pellets, and poor Pcgram wincing under his hand. "He's an old friend of ours and got into a spinney where some pheasant shooting was going on, and must have got shot by accident." " Queer accident it mnsb have been," said the medico. "The gun must have been discharged within a yard of him. Look, his hair has been singed by the explosion." Led looked and saw that it was so. "Very queer case indeed," said the doctor to himself, as he mounted his horse after recemng his fee from the gipsy. " Very queer. I think I'll call ab the police office on my way home and teJl them to look into ib."

The extraction of the shod pellets and dressing of the wound seemed to give some relief to Pegram, for soon after the departure of the surgeon, his breathing, which had all along been stertorus and laboured, became easier, and he sank into a natural sleep very different from the heavy stupor which before oppressed him. ftext morninjr he awoke to consciousness. " Where am I ?" asked he, striving to raise his head, bub failing. " Hush, don't excite yourself," said Raoliaol Lee, who was watching beside him. '' You're in good hands. So lie quiet and

He opened bis eyes, and gazed at her stupidly, " Don't you know me ?" she asked. " lion't you know Rachael Lee, the poor gipsy, and how you promised to send her weird when you found James Mintern." The name roused his stupefied senses like the crack of a whip rouses a dozing horse, and slowly memory came back to him. His last waking wish had been to speak to James Mintern ; almost the first word he heard on recovering his senses was that man's name.

" Where i« James Mintern ?" he asked. "Is he here? I wish to speak to him." The ruling idea was still strong within him, but the efforb of thinking and speaking had overcome him, and he sank off to sleep again. Rachel crept softly from the van, and told her brother the news of his awakening to consciousness. The old man was delighted, and went to his bedside and sat beside it. In the afternoon the camp was thrown into a flutter of excitement by the arrival of one of the county policemen, a gigantic fellow, in his blue with silver buttons, and his felt helmet.

" I want to see the party wot's been shot," said he, with authority. " Then you'll not have to talk so loud as that," said Rachael, with some spirit. "Ben, here's a man wants to see our friend." Old Lee looked out of the van. "Just step up here, will you," said he, " that is, if you can got in. These here vans are nob built for giants exactly." The policeman did not relish the allusion to his size—few big men do—and he sulkily and awkwardly entered the van, and crouched down by the bed. He pulled out a pocketbook and pencil, ready to take down Pegram's answers, and then proceeded to ask him a number of questionsbeginning with his name and permanent address—in some of which he insinuated foul play on the part of his hosts. Pegram, however, shut him up, and also hi: book, by refusing to give any information whatever, saying he had no right to ask for it, and affirming that the Lees were old friends of his, and he was as good as at home when he was with them. On this Lee gave, a glance of gratified pride at the policeman, and the latter took his departure, and left Pegram in peace. We must do the same until the nexb chapter. [To be continued.] Next) week the opening chapters of a new and interesting tale by that celebrated writer of light literature, Mr. Charles Garvice, will be given in the columns of the New Zealand Herald. The new tale is a thoroughly enjoyable one, and bears the attractive title of

"HER HEART'S DESIRE."

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