Hawtrey's Deputy

was his duty to communicate with the relatives of the lad he had befriended, and the fact that he had found her photograph in the young Englishman's possession made it appear highly

in gazing at it, while now he had seen her in the flesh he was willing to admit that he had never met any woman who had made

a word for him; while, so far as his experience went, the English were rather apt to be reticent and reserved to an unknown stranger. It seemed to him that, although she might give him the information he required, th

ure, which rendered it necessary for him to discharge the duty Hawtrey had saddled him with as soon as possible. The Grange, where he understood Miss Ismay was then staying, lay thirty miles away across the fells, and he had already decided to start early on the

he last thing she had said to him, she smiled, as she added, "It

hat the fact she had mentioned was not so much of a coincidence as it probably appeared. She saw it, a

looking out for you the

nds out deprecatingly. "Won't you hear me out?" he added. "The

rtling admission should have roused in her very little indignation; but she felt that it would be unreasonable t

he said i

ig oak trunk that lay

ce, I am, as I told you, a Canadian, come over partly to see the country, and partly

as expressive of a ver

ld hel

explicit. Were you ever acquainted with a young Englishman who went to Canada from this country several years ago? He would be about twenty then, and had dark hair and e

was with him when the scar was made-ever so long ago. But y

ll, I wasn't quite sure of it, and

er eyes. There was, however, only a gentle pity in them, and nothing in her manne

Canada, and never wrote. By and bye, Major Radcliffe tried to trace him through a Vancouver banker, and only found that he had died in the hands of a stra

hat I could for him. It didn't amoun

told to Hawtrey, and when he had finished her fac

d, "he had no

n expostulation. "He was dying

d ranchers of the West-and, perhaps above all, the fearless free lances who build railroads and grapple with giant trees in the forests of the Pacific slope-are, as a rule, distinguished by a splendid charity. With them the sick or worn-out stranger is very sel

r," she said. "His people still live at Garside Scar, c

like to have, and when she told him how to reach Dufton Holme by a very round-about railway journey he

s me," she said. "How did you know tha

nto his pocket, and took

nd quietly handed her the photograph. "This is you

t him. There was, however, no doubt that he had not intende

is sister." She paused, and then, as though impelled to make

eved to hear of his death, she could have had no particular tenderness f

eauty of it, and it afterwards became a companion-something that conne

arp glance at him, but

he added. "Then I fell into the habit of looking at it in my lonely camp in the bush at night, and when I sat besid

courag

ed and unsuccessful after spending several months' wages which we could badly spare-or I was going from one wooden town to another without a dollar in my pocket and wondering,

"Why didn't you mention

-"I wanted to make sure you wouldn't be repelled by what might look like Colonial brusquerie. You see, you have been over snow-barred divides and through great shado

that this stranger was not posing or speaking for effect. It did not occur to him that he might have gone too far, and for a

came up brokenly out of the valley. An odour of fresh grass floated about them, and the dry, cold smell of the English spring was in

o write Major Radcliffe and tell him what my object is befor

glanced at the photograph which was still in her hand. "It has served its pu

to give the portrait back to him; but there was, at least, one excell

am glad we have met; but I'm afraid I hav

n he called upon him. Still, he regretted his lack of adroitness as he walked back to the inn, where he wrote two letters when he had consulted a map and his landlady. Dufton Holme, he discovered, was a small village within a mile or two of the Grange where, as Miss Rawlinson had informed him, Agatha Ismay was then staying

h white road, which led past a rock-girt lake and into a deep valley. It was six o'clock when he started, and three when he reached the inn, w

They received him graciously, but there was an indefinite something in their manner and bearing which Wyllard, who had read a good deal, recognised, though he had never been brought into act

man listened gravely with an unmoved face, though a trace of moisture crept into the little lady's eyes. There was s

d never wipe out, even if I wished it," he said. "

his quietness was more marked t

hat I was unduly hard on him. His mother"-and he turned to the little lady with an inclination that pleased Wyllard curiously-"was sure of it a

anker he called upon, who, discovering that he had registered at a hotel as Pattinson, at length traced him to a British Columbian silver mine. He had, however, left i

workman's belt from his pocket, and laid them gently on Mrs. Ra

only a very little while ago that I was able to trace you, and th

the photograph. It seemed to him that the girl would not like it. Nor, though he was greatly tempted,

uld be delighted," he said. "If you will take up your qua

urged him at least to dine with them on the

e explained. "As it happens, I've a message for Miss Ismay, and I wrote offering

our letter on to her. I had a note from her yesterday, however, and e

llard. "I have promised to

e at his wife, and the faint

will promise to come I wil

encing to appear a little more difficult to him. It was, it seemed, his task to explain to a girl brought up among such people delicately what she must be prepared to face as a farmer's wife in Western Canada. He was not sure that this would be easy in itself, but it was rendered much more difficult by the fact tha