The Red Redmaynes

he is famous-so it is said; and perhaps unco

stood high in the criminal investigation department of the police. He was indeed about to receive an inspectorship, well earned by those qualitie

ts were added to his credit. He felt complete assurance that in ten years he would retire from gov

and accepting the opportunity to survey his own life from a bird's-eye point of view, measur

one. Until now he had existed for his work only. Since the war he had been again occupied with routine labour on cases of darkness, doubt, and crime, once more living only that he might resolve

eward. He was now at last in position to enlarge his outlook, consider

o in possession of a handsome salary and the prospect of promotion, when a senior man retired at no distant date. Too intelligent to find all that life had to o

ed it with him. Love, he had reasoned, might lessen his powers of concentration, blunt his extraordinary special faculties, perhaps even introduce an element of calculation and actual cowardice before great alternatives, and so shadow his powers and modify his future suc

lities and often their distinction of mind; yet his ideal struck backward to another and earlier type-the type of his own mother who, as a widow, had kept house for him until her death. She was his feminin

know a mother's standpoint must be vastly different from that of any wife, no matter how perfect her devotion; he had experience enough of married men to doubt whether the woman he sought

portunity offered, and now he had returned for the third time to the Duchy Hotel at Princetown-there to rene

prison that dominated that grey smudge in the heart of the moors known as Princetown held many interesting and famous criminals, more than one of whom had been "put through" by him, and had to thank Brendon's personal industry and daring for penal servitude. Upon the prison staff were not a few men of intelligence and w

t them. He had discovered certain deep pools in a disused quarry fed by a streamlet, that harboured a fish

rincetown, a road still extended to the deserted spot and joined the main throughfare half a mile distant. A house or two-dwellings used by old-time quarrymen-stood upon this gra

eaved out before him dark against a blaze of light from the sky. The sun was setting and a great glory of gold, fretted with lilac and crimson, burned over

flying. It was as though from the desolate waste there had sprung a magical and exotic flower; or that the sunset lights, now deepening on fern and stone, had burned together and became incarnate in this lovely girl. She was slim and not very tall. She wore no hat and the auburn of her hair, pi

t small, but the lips were full and delicately turned. She walked quickly with a good stride and her slight, silvery skirts and rosy, silken jumper showed he

ith all the light-heartedness of youth and he caught a few notes as clear and cheerful as a grey bird's. Then, still walking quickly, she dwindled into one brigh

er eyes and in her song. He speculated on her age and guessed she must be eighteen. He then, by some twist of thought, considered his personal appearance. We are all prone to put the best face possible upon such a matter, but Brendon lived too much with hard facts to hoodwink himself on that or any other subject. He was a well-modelled man of great physical strength, and

. Its peaks and precipices fell, here by rough, giant steps, here stark and sheer over broad faces of granite, where only weeds and saplings of mountain ash and thorn could find a foothold. The bottom was

n this slope of disintegrated granite more water dripped and tinkled from overhanging ledges of stone. Rills ran in every direction and, from the spot now reached by the sportsman, the deserted quarry presented a bewild

am!" h

ly answered Echo h

Bren

Bren

lco

lco

just tinged with that something not human th

dst. They covered the lowest depth of the old workings, shelved to a rough beach on one side and, upon the other, ran thirty feet deep, where the granite sprang sheer in a precipice from the face of the little lake. Here crystal-clear water sank into a dim, blue darkness. The whole surface of the pools was, however, within reach of any fly fisherman wh

tiny-eyed flies from a box and fastened them to the hairlike leader he always used, there persisted the thought of th

ber; but still there persisted a clinking sound, uttered monotonously from time to time, which the sportsman supposed to be a bird. It came from behind the great acclivities that ran opposite his place by the pools. Brendon suddenly p

s and a red waistcoat with gaudy brass buttons. He had entered at the lower mouth of the quarries and was

ndon, straddled his great legs, to

ve found

?" asked th

e wondered why I never saw a rod in this hole. There are

able features of the man before him. His scrutiny was swift and sure; yet had he guessed the tremendous significance of his glance, or with proleptic vision seen what thi

evidently proud of them, for he twirled them from time to time and brought the points up to his ears. They were of a foxy red, and beneath them flashed large, white teeth when the big man talked in rather grating tones. He suggested one on very good terms with himself-

iendly, though Brendon

, pollack and mackerel-half a boat load-that's spo

ect it

or? Only a desert of hills and stones and two-penny half-penny streams a child can walk across;

ere is a magic here. I

poor devils of convicts. A man I know is building himself a bungalow out here. He a

a trowel

re gone. But think of it-to turn your back on ci

e-if you've go

g point. They think love's enoug

it to get a

e you don't catch anythi

ed man strode off through the gap fifty yards distant. Then in the stillness Mark heard the purr

ls now stood six feet high and they were of remarkable thickness. The plan indicated a dwelling of six rooms and Brendon perceived that the house would have no second story. An acre round about had been walled, but as yet the boundaries were incomplete. Magnificent views swept to the west and south. Brendon's ra

ies, and live here amid these stern realities which promised nothing, yet were full of riches for a certain order of mankind. He judged that the couple, who designed to dwell beside the silent hollow of Foggintor, must have outlived much and reached an attitude of mind

ss. Brendon returned to his sport and found a small "coachman" fly sufficiently destructive. The two pools yielded

it, and so, presently, regained the main road between Princetown and Tavistock. Tramping back under the stars, his thoughts drifted to the auburn girl of the moor. He was seeking to recollect how she had been dressed. He remembered everything about her wi

terrible thing, and in common with everybody else his thoughts were distracted. To the detective's hearty annoyance and much against his will, there confronted him a professional problem. Though the sudden whisp

r waters of the Meavy River; at the end of that day, not far short of midnight, when glasses were

tel, was waiting to extinguish the

happened, master, by the look of

ive, yawning and longing for bed. "That's a

ngly. Mr. Pendean's uncle-in-law have sl

do that for?" asked B

en like you to find

is Mr.

building the bungalo

is mind complete in every physical feature

done it. That's the ge

esired to tell him all they knew, did he show the least interest. When Milly knocked with his hot water

ul thing-" she began.

come to Dartmoor to catch murderers, but

ft; and Mr. Pendea

't want to hear anythi

red devi

devil, either. If it's soft, I s

him with much

fishing-a professed murder catcher like you-

Now, clear out.

red Milly and departed

seemed every probability of a wet day and from a fisherman's point of view the conditions promised sport. He was just slipping on a raincoat and about to leave the hotel when Will Blake appeared and handed him a letter. He glanced at it, half inclined to stick the missive in the

Cottages,

ou. I fear that I have no right to seek your services directly, but if you can answer the prayer of a heart

fully

PEND

mn" gently under his brea

Pendean's hou

ust before you come to

and say I'll call

. "I told 'em you'd n

turned up the collar of his mackintosh, and walked to the police station, where he heard a little of the matter in hand from a constable and then asked for permission to use the telephone. In five minutes he w

o have done it disappeared. Widow wants me to take up case. I'm

again to-night. Halfyard, chief at Princetown, i

Inspector Halfyard wa

e in again. Tell the inspector to expect me at noon

ed. He knew Brendon

iday, sir. But I reckon it won't. It's al

's the

rendon; and that's what only Robert R

. Then he sought No.

faced northwest, and immediately in front of them rose the great, tree-clad shoulder of North Hes

found himself in a little hall decorated with many trophies of fox hunting. There were masks and brushes and seve

n?" asked Brendon; but the

Gerry, for twenty years Huntsman of the Dartmoor Foxhound

ready to

d hit, poor lady

ark Br

h her. 'Tis a fearful ordeal for any inn

door upon the right

ndean," she said; then Brendon walked i

table where she was writing letters and B