The Vagrant Duke

ond, a steel safe between the windows. As Peter Nichols entered, a man advanced from a window at the side, the shutter of which was slight

he distinguishing features of his face were a short nose, a heavy thatch of brows, a square jaw which showed

e control. Normally, he would have seemed much as Sheldon, Senior, had described him-a hard-fisted man, a close bargainer who had won his way to his great wealth by the sheer force of a strong personality. There was little of softness in his face, little that was imaginative. This was not a man to be frightened at the Unseen or to see terrors that did not exist. Otherwise, to Peter he seemed commonplace to the last degree, of Irish extraction probably, the kind o

hols. Thought you were ne

m Pickerel River. Something w

ldn't send my own car. I've got onl

er in the least-

"You've been well recommended by Mr. Sheldon. I talked to h

h a view to getting all the informati

tly scrub oak-pine and spruce. I've sold off a lot to the Government. A mess of it has been cut-there's been a l

a. I'm a trai

good all-r

hat--?" be

ok after other men, to take charge of a co

ed to dealin

ob for a furriner-one with some-er-unusual features

mystery that surrounded his employer and the agencies invoked to protect him. It seemed as if he were loath to speak of them, as if he were holding Peter off at arm's length, so to say, until he

no matter how big it is, if I have me

h, I mean--" he put in jerkily, "you're

eter calmly. "I'm used to commanding men,

n. Er-you're an English

e had told in New York about his work in Russia. While Peter was talking, McGuire was pacing up and down the room with

l do. I like the way you talk and I like your looks. Younger than I'd hoped

, Mr. McGuire, if you let me know just what, that is unusual, is to be required of me. I ass

in his chair, his hairy hands clutching at his knees, while he blurted out with a kind o

aid Peter, waiting pati

e house without my permission," he snarled. An

t should not be

oke in McGuire, springing to his feet again,

raged. Peter was silent for a moment, watching McG

st who or what is to be guarded against?" Mr. McGuire stopped beside him as though transfixed by the thought. Then his fingers clutched at the back of a

ve the orders. You obey them. I am not a m

. So long as this thin

business. There are many things of value in this house," and he glanced towa

," sai

elaxed as he realiz

he said with a shrug. "A man of my age may ha

ke it then that the systematic policing of the

men into shifts for day and night work-more at night than in the day

is in cha

f the sawmills-but he-er-well, Mr. Nichols-I'm not

ill you give the nec

here to-day,

re on guard her

es thirteen--" McGuire halted-"thirteen

you wish me to ta

old playhouse-the log cabin-down by the creek. They'll show you. It's connected with this hou

the door and cal

was heard, "Get Mr.

and offer

y your faith in me,

d-ni

ut it seemed equally certain to Peter that what he feared was no ghost or banshee but the imminence of some human attack upon his person or possessions. Here was a practical man, who bore in every feature of his strongly-marked face the tokens of a successful struggle in a hard career, the beginni

ir weaknesses of fiber in sullenness or bravado. But it did not make them furtive. He could not believe that it was the mere danger of death or physical violence that obsessed his employer. That sort of danger perhaps there might be, but the fear that he had seen

business except to the Treasury Department, a silent man, with a passion for making money. What could he fear? Whom

rom his mind and addressed himself to the excellent meal provided by the housekeeper. For the present, at least, fortu

ered, neither of them visible. The housekeeper, if attentive, was silent, and the man who had opened the front door, who seemed to be a kind of general factotum, as well a

m and laid a police whistle, a large new revolver and a

ed sepulchrally. "Mr. McGuire asked

aid Peter,

sir, Mr. McG

O

th the soiled shirt and the three days' growth of beard on the man upstair

teps were heard no more, the housekee

t, Mr. Nichols?" she as

icious! I'm very mu

ain't anythin'

t. He had cut the cover of the cartridge box and had slipped a cartr

r, sir?" she whispered, while

putting the cartridges in the pistol. As an ex-military man, he w

," she stammered, "did Mr. McGuire

didn't." And then with

I did. Then there'd b

I can't help

housekeeper here since t

last cartridge as the thought came to hi

face wreathed in a lovel

ernoon. She sho

Poor

oo

ols. But Beth she's-different

ferent," admitte

l this trouble has come, I can't get home nights to her. And she can't c

ridges into his pockets. And then gallantly, "If I can off

t is I've got about as much as I can stand. If it wasn't for

er a time. If anything is going to

toward the door. "An' ye'll tell me, si

to happen, Mrs. Bergen,

sly from the darkness as P

sir. The chauffeur took your bag over. You'll need th

ll-trained servant, had already decided that Peter belonged to a class accustomed to being waited on. Going t

id. "If you'll go out on the port

number of men and their disposition about the place. There were six, he found, including Wells, with six more to sleep in the stable, which was also used as a guardhouse. Peter made the rounds of the sentries. None of them seemed to be taking the matter any too seriously and one at least was sound asleep beneath some bushes.

a lot, Mister?" he said. "

r la

If I don't walk across the lawn from the house in half an hour I'll

other side of the garage along which he went on his hands and knees and crawling from shrub to shrub in the shadows reached the portico without detection. Here he lighted a fag and qu

, aren't ye?

three ways. The other two ways are through the pine gro

o you know

id Peter. "It's a busin

hould be stationed and why, and Shad, somewhat

in in detail to-morrow." And then to Shad, "I'll take command until midnight, when you'll go on with the other shift until four.

ertical line of light which showed at a window on the second floor where another kept watch. The man called Jesse, the one who had

're paid. But I'd like to know just what t

carry a gun. You'd better be sure you're not asleep when it comes. But if you care

-ni

to the big cedar tree; and keep your eyes open-especially

ll night, but at twelve he called Shad Wells and went down to look over his cabin which was a quarter of a mile away from the house near Cedar Creek (or "Crick" in th

ncluding a crib, a rocking horse, a velocipede, beside some smaller toys. Whom had these things belonged to? A grandson of McGuire's? And was the daughter of McGuire like her father, unlovely, soiled and terror-stricken? His desultory mental queri

e an opportunity too to look over the property and make a report as to its possibilities. To a man inured as Peter was to disappointments, what he had found was good. He had made up his mind to fit himself soldierlike into his new situation and he had to admit now that he liked the prospect. As though to compensate for past mischief, Fate had provided him with the one employment in

tailor-made clothing and putting on the flannel shirt, corduroy trousers and heavy laced boots, all of wh

ream seemed to be tinkling just at his elbow, while much farther away there was a low murmur of falling water at the tumbling dam, mingling with the sighs of vagrant airs among the crowns of the trees, the rustl

l and spiritual,-the dying struggles of the senile nation, born in intolerance, grown in ignorance and stupidity which, with a mad gesture, had cast him forth with a curse. He had doffed the empty prerogatives of blood and station and left them in t

rned up toward the silent pines. For a long while he stood so