THE COLONEL'S ENEMY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3132, 8 March 1909, Page 2

THE COLONEL'S ENEMY.

CHAPTER Xll.—Continued. The Liverpool detective shook his head. He had taken the card <uid looked at the order book. It was genuine enough, and showed the woi'K done for many previous days in different towns. "It's a mistake, gentlemen," he said, "easily explained. You do answer, in a marvellous manner, to the descriptions of the missing gentleman, and the man he is supposed tn be with, but that is, of course, a coincidence, and nothing more. My friend is a bit over-anxious, and, if he was rather rough, you will excuse him." "We have been on the road too long to take offense at trifles," the druggist said, with a smile, "and I am only sorry it is not in our power to give you any information or assistance." The major thanked him and apologised for the intrusion. If they were what they professed to be, an apology was due, and if they were accomplices they had been too well instructed to be detected by ordinary means, There was nothing for it but to retire and confess that the expedition had been a failure. "You tned to frighten them and made'a muddle of it," the Liverpool detective said to Mr Fletcher. "If that is your way of doing business 1 would not give much for your help. You had much better have left it to the ma jo: and me." "That is only your opinion." Mr Fletcher said, rather angrily. "If I had my will I would have them arrested end detained." "For what?" "As suspected persons." "Suspected of what?" the detective said scornfully. "You could not accuse the druggist of personating the colonel. You cannot be accused of personating a man unless you us 3 his name, and he has not done that. You heard that he was spjken to as 'colonel,'and his own mine is Cornell. If y< u are deceived by that he is not to blame." "You think, then," the major said, "that thay are really what they say they are?" "I should say so, without any doubt about it. We shall keep them under surveillance all the same, because they may be accpmplices as well. We are dealing with a deeplaid scheme, and whoever is at the head of it. he is one who knows whtr.' ; to find his agents." "But these appear to be respectable men," the major said. "Fifty per Cint of our most dangerous criminals are men of un doubted respectability," the detective said. "They keep a bank account, have sittings in church, and hold gooi social pusitions, Our big frauds and puzzling crimes are not perpetrated by the poor, rough brutes wlv> go about picking pockets and committing burglaries. The forgers, coiners, and confidence men are those you meet in decent society and you never suspect th<3m till your hear they are in prison." There was not much in this to comfort the major, it only made his task seem nvare hopeless. The detective, who was armed with the necessary authority, went to the telegraph of fice from which the message supposed to have beed sent by rit. Hilary had been dispatched, and found that it had been banded in by a boy, one of the urchins who are za numerous in Boulogne as are the un tarred Arabs who infest the street? of London. '"Do you think you could find that boy?" Lugard asked. "I shall" find him, sir, but it will take some time;- and when we do find him. veiy little can he learned. If Col. St. Hilary had sent that telegram he would have done it personally, written it at the office. They will find the original form presently, and you can tee it for yourself. They were too busy just now." Lugard wept back with him a few minutes later, and the original telegram was produced. It was written in pencil. "That is St. Hilary's writing," the major said. "I am almost sure." "You had better not be sure of anything," the detective said. "I '" know that those two men we saw are the only two who have come into the town recently in any way like those we have the descriptions of, and how they came in is a mystery to me, for we watched every train and every boat." "Unless they disguised themselves in the train on the journey down." "Which is just what they would do, and shows the kind of men we have to deal with." "The colonel may have sent it." Lugard said. "The writing looks like his." "And that man, the druggist's traveller, looked like the colonel," said the detective. "There is just as much value in the one resemblance as the other. The telegram is a ; forgery, and so will the letter he, if j you get one. It is clear to me that J somebody must have obtained a copy j of something he has written, and the question is, who is that somebody? The colonel has only just returned from India, after being away for many years, and as he disappeared on j the morning after his arrival, he | cannot have written to man people." i 'He left a note for Mr Dacre and j me," the major said. "That, so far j as I know, is the only thing he has j written since he left India." i " Where is that note now?" j ' "Mr Dacre has it." j "And has never parted with it?" "I do not think he has." "Then we must look further afield," the detective said. "Somebody is in possession of a document which will enable them to imitate his wr'ting, and the sooner we find that Mimebody the poonc-r we shall be en the right track." "We could not go far wrong if we

BY WINTHRO? B. HARLAWD. Author of "Lady Elgin's Secret," "A Harvest of Shame," "The Elder Son," "Lord Ashton's Heir," Etc.

detained those two men at the Neapolitan," Mr Fletcher suggested. "I am surprised at you." the detective said, with the natural jealousy of an ill-paid regular for a p;osperous volunteer. "You were in tie force once, long enough to know that we could not detain them without arresting them on some specific charge, and there is not an atom of evidence against them at present. What may be here in the course of the next few hours is a different thing. Do you intend to remain here, major?" "If I can do any good by remaining yes." "I am going to set the telegraph at work, and find out all I can about these men—the druggist and his friend, the traveller in spectacles. We may get a clew by finding out their associates. There is no doubt that if we have been sol 3 they have helped to sell us." The inquiries set going from headquarters at Scotland Yard and Liverpool ended as the detectives had predicted. Mr Alfred Cornell and his companions were well known and highly respectable travellers, having the full confidence of the firms they represented; and there was clear proof that, they had been doing legitimate business in the towns they had mentioned, and their own behaviour in Boulogne was a further point in their favour: though they must have known they were being shadowed they went about operly, and without any sign of uneasiness or restraint. They made no secret of the route they intended to follow, and, as it nearly covered the European Continent on the other side of St. George's Channel, thert was a prospect of ample employment for those who wished to keep them in sight. The boy who had handed in the telegram was found, after a diligent search, and the information he could give was of very little use. A gentleman had called him from the door of a cafe —a French gentleman, with a long moustache, waxed and curled at the ends. Monsieur of the moustache had given him the message, the money and thirty centimes for himself. He had never seen monsieur before, or since. Going to the cafe indicated by the boy, Maj. Lugard and the I detectives could obtain no further tidings. The chief waiter shrugged and gesticulated like a figure set in motion by clockwork, as he tried to explain that at their establishment they had thousands of customers daily, and hundreds of them wore the moustache a la Napoleon. The Major re-crossed the Channel, heartsick with the result of his journey, and more than ever convinced that his dear old friend had passed forever beyond human sight or knowledge. The detectives and Mr Fletcher did not agree with him, and urged him to have patience. But long before he returned to Mr Dacre's house, the major had determined to have recourse to the last measure left open to them. He would offer a large reward, and it was only after much persuasion from Mr Dacre that he could be induced to compromise on an advertisement. ["to be continued.]