White Motley

third day after Luton Delayne's visit to the Palace H

y that the outlook was "rotten." Young ladies of ages varying from eighteen to two-and-fifty, hobbled about the precincts crying for John, the porter, to "come and strap them on." The cooks in the kitchen, not less busy, c

he mists were heavy, and now the whole of the g

eathery waves rolled noiselessly to his feet. Nothing could be seen of the panorama below, not a vineyard, nor a cottage; and whil

with the panting hounds-a prospect which was full of terror to the majority, but of great interest: (1) to a certain Bob Otway, who had persuaded Nellie Rider to be his partner in the promise of th

uch experts as Bob Otway, lined up before the porch of the hotel, and prepared to carry itself with what grace it could. The light of it, conversationally considered, was Miss Bess Bethune, who, moving like a sprite amidst the company, assured each and all that something dreadful was about to happen at the Palace, and that the night would bear witness. When she had thus breakfasted upon horrors, she soug

en friends, feeding upon the inflated estimates of rumour, declared that Master Bob had just come into a fortune of fifteen hundred a year-a tale, by the way, told also of his friend, Dick Fenton-and this sum being clearly in her mind and sweet romance, as

tion or rendezvous. Sufficient to know that they were mounting far above the mists, winning their way steadily to the entrancing slopes and t

it. He got me yesterday. That nut, Major Boodle, was with him and the lady, of course. Lady Coral-Smith's a pretty good weight when she's round your neck, but I'd sooner see her round the major's. Did you hear h

stance, and pronounced it to be of good omen. Fearing no possibl

s lost her husband-at least I should be, if I knew what kind of a husband he was.

ughed

lost. That's a new sort of game, I suppose: trying to lose a husband and counting points aga

band" was sacrosanct, and such trifling

antly. "Wherever there is a pretty woman, there will people te

he liked to pose a

d. "Suppose you had been in the case, Nell

t; you would begin to talk about widows i

d up app

ether. You don't mean to say you would

re you going to stand here all day looking down at nothing? I didn't come out

e point, he seized her hand without so much as a by-your-leave or any other unnecessary absurdity, and began to run down the slope wit

nothing of the inhabitants thereof, existed. Both were gasping for breath as they sailed down the last of the steeps and swung to the left at the bottom. Both were too sensible of the obvious fitness of things to utter one complaint when Miss

that every day. Now, don't get a

tried to push

Bob? It was your faul

re-only I should like your arms a little closer round

s boots forbade him to admire her pretty ankles. When he had removed his own impe

said. "There's a grand view from here, Nellie-

t to see Br

silky your hair is-and I do believe your lips are cold. Well, that

her colour was high, a

treat me lik

I love yo

n it-every

thousand oaths

never love a

on his shoulders, and loo

friend Dick, whom he met presently

to two hundred, Nellie. You'll just be

ealed the compact instantly. She gave him a smacking kiss on his l

likes you. Wasn't it lucky we came up here to-day? Wouldn't it have been dreadful to have gone with all those peop

ued. The future became as misty as the wraith of cloud floating over Mont Blanc. After all, things might be fixed

talk. Perhaps we shall see the hares. I wonder what Marjory will say when we tell her. You

. What she did see was a man walking to and fro upon the narrow bridle-track, near Vermala, and another man who dodged upon his heels, but took good care not to be dis

urprise. "He's being followed by the soldi

gh, the play was going on just as she had indicated. A man walked leisurely upon the path, while another dodged him in the security

fellow anywhere. What's he up to, I wonder; and who's the man? It must be one

the height in a direction which would have carried him to the very wood which now sheltered the lovers. This manoeuvre, closely observed by the gendarme, was not immediately answered by

game," Bob rem

where lunch was waiting. No one cared very much about the hares; elderly ladies, repenting of their rashness, would have paid precious gold to have been carried to any destination; the girls desired only that the men should admire their dexterity; the men, that their tricks should not go unobserved

ine superstructure, they turned and began to ski gently down through the wood. Hardly, however, had they made a start, when there came, not from below but from above, a loud and prolonged cry

e did not know what to make of it. The cry was not repeated, and the pines hid the truth from their view. Ne

sked her. She replied, with a very whi

e up to the Zaat to-day. We could do no good, Bob-I'm sure I would go, if I tho

erhaps. By George, though; if it w

shudder. How can yo

r on they disturbed, maladroitly, a pair of lovers, who started up in guilty fashion to reveal the red face of a certain Mr. Richard Fenton, and the tousled hair of that amiable

can you look m

ed, Nell-I'm goi

rather abashed, and by no means a lover who wou

g and laughing and blushing. It remained for Bob to set matters straight by a resounding cheer, which he did presently to the great scandal of

agg will eat all the sandwiches within half a mile of him. Let's make a dash for it

d demoralised appeal, and when they approached him, began to tell them an excited tale which even one of his own countrymen might not have followed. As for Bob, who had forgotten the only irregular verb he ever knew, and Nellie, whose French hardly represented the guinea expended upon it per quarter, t

That's steep, anyway; a baby would walk the path. Do y

e had something bright on his hat. They went off toward the Zaat, and then we heard one of them shout out. I shoul

, and returned almost immediately to his chalet, leaving the young couple to appease the excited Frenchman as best they could. That worth

s friend. Bob assumed an air of r

as fallen of

turned very pale. Dick

d pick him up? I expect it's all my eye; people don't fall o

d to him. You have a shot, Dick

her in heaven nor on earth. Obviously, he must find one of his own countrymen, and they must go together to the slopes above. Failing that, he would return, and telephone to the police; an alternative which so pleased him that he was alr

owsed upon a common pasture. And curiously enough, while Bob and Dick ate with good appetite, their mood was hardly as joyous as it should have b

ate the situation in anxious whispers. Assuredly, as Bob admitted, they had "done it," an

agely: "they were in a devi