The Motor Scout

his sleeve. Looking round, he saw Alfonso, the gobernador's son, a sallow, weedy boy of about his own age, whom he had often vainly tried

the boy mysteriously, "bu

never played practical jokes except in carnival time. "I may as well go," he said to himself; so, pushing his hands into his pockets, he sauntered af

garden. Tim knew the place well; indeed, in days gone by he had sometimes scaled the garden wall in quest of ripe plums or peaches. He followed Alfonso for some distance, until he came to the

to come?" thought Tim impatie

gobernador open the wicket gate, glance cautiously round, and then come swiftly towards the pl

am, se?o

nd, come down," sa

ped at h

re reasons...." He nodded with an air of mystery. Then he went on in nervous haste: "Tell your good father to be on his guard to-night. See that everything is secur

to happen, se?

ave said too much. But I ow

," said Tim, backing. "T

d the gobernador anxiously. "I must go. Next time I see

lurried gentleman, who, with another cautious look around

ng it with the Prefect's visit, the object of which he had learnt from his mother. He had a lively imagination. Such a man as the Pref

the present Prefect to office: the managers feared that their floating assets would be attached by the new official, ostensibly for public purposes. Since then the employers of labour had had to be

s would have to pass through one or other of the patios. The middle patio had French doors opening on the garden. They were always locked and bolted at night, like the main door and the servants'

r himself, without his father knowing anything about it! He chuckled with delight as he imagined himself telling at the breakfast-table, as calmly as though it were an everyday matter, how he had

that he laughed. There was a large quantity of ammonia solution in the house, kept for household purposes and for use with the refrigerator which was a domestic necessity in this tropical climate. Tim had only recently left school in Eng

ly servant of many years' standing. Andrea was rather troubled, and advised that the warning should be given to Mr.

y provided himself with a short length of garden hose, with a nozzle at the end. Drawing the rubber tubing over the neck of the can, he placed the nozzle end in the hole from which the grating had been removed, in such a way that when the cock was turned it would allow the fumes to enter the pa

and then he got on the chair, and peeped th

coming," he whispered d

ter, se?orito,"

that; he did not want to

d from one of the glass panes of the French door. Presently he dimly saw several dark, shadowy forms pass from side to side. The men were removing the pane. One after another the intru

e was a sniff, a stifled cough, and a whispered exclamation. Presently there were louder coughs, long-drawn gasps, and the men, in the effort to repress these fatal sounds, choke

in his pyjamas, a gun in his hand. Seeing that the pane was removed, he ran to the door, and sent a charge of duck-shot after the dark figu

turning when the marauders had vanished into the n

pened his door; he felt very much annoyed with

said Mr. O'Hagan. He gasp

her," said

this way? ... Get back to bed," he cried in Spanish to the serva

sked Tim, anxious that old And

ave you to say for yourself? Were those fellows outside friends of yours, in the

are burglars, and I spoilt

u know they were coming? You

me to look out for them

id the gobernador k

y asked me to tell you to

't you do

f, and not disturb you. Who could know t

twitched at his so

t time you are asked to give me a message, give it. And no more tr

d them,

me; for a few pellets in their carcasses will be

e, Mr. O'Hagan s

as made his fi

et, poor boy!" rep