The Message

ounted almost to a crime. Traveling fast and low before the wind, the doomed bird flew straight toward the butts. Baumgartner closed his eyes, fired both barrels-the first inten

e little man delightedly. "It's all knack. I k

with a sour grin. The shattered carcass lay in full view on a tuft o

was hardly necessary," said

, "but now ye've got yer 'ee in, as the sayin' is,

g coups in succession, so did fortune favor one whom nature had not designed as a sportsman. He shot with blind confidence, and brought down half a dozen birds while they came sailing over the crest of the hill before a strong b

his quiet haven cast its spell on his soul. Rich as he was, he owned no home except a garish mansion in New York. His career had been meteoric, full of lurid energy. Beginning with the lust of money, he had followed the beaten track of his order, and became obsessed with the lust of power. Yet his ambition needed s

millionaire's expense. Mrs. Baumgartner was shrewd enough to see that the gain of a big slice of British territory in West Africa would offer poor compensation for the loss of the new career which was opening up an alluring vista to her dazzled gaze. For once, therefore, discord threatened in the household. In her daughter, too, she found a powerful ally. A month of close companionship with Evelyn Dane had completely changed the life–theories of a spoiled and affected girl o

of Lochmerig Lodge, at one and the same moment, Mrs. Laing, Miguel Figuero, and Count von Rippenbach. As it happened, the three already knew each other slightly. They had met in Madeira

ro, was a skilled cross–examiner. Thus, he soon hit upon a plausible explanation of the lady's appearance in Inverness–shire. She was one of Mrs. Baumgartner's social links with England. On h

ing affluence. It helped him to spend his money, and was graciously blind to the dark

oked–for meeting. He was aware of the love passages between Warden and Rosamund Laing; he feare

rig if Figuero had not recognized Evelyn Dane the instant he set eyes on her. Straightway the ti

ked the door. Before the surprised millionaire could utter a word of protest, the West African fire–brand began to q

u in Cowes?" he demanded fiercely. "Malediction! Are you

riddles," growled Baumgartner. "What girl? How am I to k

most to fear, yet you permit one who is probably his fiancée, and surely in league with him, to live in your house and spy on the actions of yourself and

r thinking and careful guidance. "You are too ready with some names, Senhor Figuero

t catching these strange words, but I mean the good–looking one, the t

mean Mis

s she. I re

's companion

r yacht just before Warden met her. And they are lovers. How can I be mistaken? They went away from Cowes in the same train

and he had an unpleasant belief, now he came to recall the incidents of a busy day,

uguese found the me

slaves to the Sultan of Bogota. "Langton in Oxfordshire-that is the place. The railway official spelt it for me. A boatman told me he knew the girl, and gave me some outla

owed a degree of hesitancy in falling in with the proposal he came from London to make, and this latest complication would strengthen von Rippenbach's hands be

e for a crumb of recognition as a marksman, had not attained h

mie? Why should that be harmful? Does it not explain his visit to Cowes? Indeed, once we are convinced that they know each other, we can turn the circumstance to our own purpose. I am far from credit

bic, and Hausa, and krooboy palaver as well as I do. He broke the Oku ju–ju when it was worth a thousand lives to touch a stick

on the last point raised by the Portuguese. It bristled with thorns. Von Ri

d. "As for Miss Dane, I shall clear up that difficulty without delay. Act as

the two men concerning whom Warden had told her so much, was still more bewildered when Mr.

Langton, in Oxfordshire,

ondering what the

ough it on your way home after q

angton is o

Mr. James G. Hertz, of Boston, is staying there

iles away, and that is a lo

Boston, who was buried in Boston, co

with which he followed this trivial bit of talk, though his limited knowledg

ng the regatta week, Se

of. His nimble wits were dulled by the barrier of language. It put him outside the pale. Things might be occurring which he ought to know, but which were hidden from him owing to this drawback. In the beautiful woman by his side he might find an excellent go–betw

he murmured, "an' I see somet'ing de

the odd expressions, though she was quite co

r dem Capta

ourse

secret dem t'i

s are concerned, I shall certa

heed to the in

I tole you dem secret. You p

ll-

marry dem

be id

for such vehement repudiation of his news. Fortunately, the Honorable Billy Thring was giving a realistic account of his failure to secure an heiress during a recent wife–hunting tour in America-he tried lots of 'em, he explained,

guese sarcastically. "You fit for fool

and the man's astute senses warned him that it was dr

ver wid dem girl at Cowes. If you no b'li

t. He had not written to her or to Lady Hilbury during the past month, a

?" went on Figuero,

tell me?" s

Warden marry d

?" she asked, with a bitterness th

etted his thin li

ired goin' by

e? Why do you choos

ddenly bec

English custom. W'en we chop one–time palaver s

and entered into conversation with a man near

to America full of hot air, and came back with

herself. If Figuero's story were true, she would smite and spare not. If it were untrue, Evelyn would be the

summoned to a bridge table, and Ro

e Sans Souci at Cowes, Miss Dane?

ne why her brief sojourn in the Solent s

t Captain W

er woman blushed and flinched from it. Still, she was

land," she said. "Cowes is a cr

rtation, too! You see, I know all about it. Little birds whisper these things. Arthur did not tell me when he came to see me in to

Not one barbed shaft missed its mark. If words could wound, then Evelyn must have succumbed, but the injurie

in Captain Warden's visits to Cowes than I or any

in that she succeeded, though her own voice s

s also rather thoughtless. We were pledged to each other years ago, but were kept apart by-by a mother's folly. Now I am free, and he came back to me, though I had to insist that at least a year should el

upants swam before her eyes, and the pain of repression became almost unbearabl

den's thoughtlessness, as you term it?" she said, com

ng seriously, but we

nderstand that you ar

nd laughed, a trifle shrilly, perhaps, for a woma

been dead a year, as I form one of that larg

s flashed angrily. She had expected

u a good turn, yet on

have gone out of your way to give a mere stranger this interesting information, I wish to be quite sure of the facts. For i

ace me in a fa

nk. If I may guess at the meaning of a somewhat crude phrase, it seems to imply a p

the sinners mo

aing. I only wish to ascertain exactly w

Cowes. And, for goodness' sake, let me see his reply. It will be too killing to

of anxiety in the jesting words. Her rival was playing a bold game. It might

d not help saying. "Even you, with your long experience, might fai

ave met him

gain she felt that her tormentor was not so sure of her ground as she professed to be. Eve

aid quietly. "Perhaps, if you apply to your half–caste

e privileged persons who can say anything to anybody without giving offe

up the wrong tree, a Chicago girl called it. What a thorough ass I was to spin that yarn at dinner with yo

bout?" cried Rosamund, turning on hi

ion," said Evelyn, yielding to the impulse that de

en. You see, Mrs. Laing, I really must marry somebody with sufficient means for both of us. I have exp

y I have just been telling Miss Dane that I am hors d

Thring," cried Evelyn, with a well–assumed laugh. "Mrs.

the bitter cup that is held out to many a girl in her position, and its gall was not diminished because she still believed that Arthur Warden loved her. How could she doubt him, when each passing week brought her a letter couched in the most endearing terms? Only that morning had she heard from him at Ostend, whither the Nancy had flown

was tacitly agreed between them that Evelyn should not play the r?le of spy on her employers, and

n she spoke of a prior engagement. She knew that Warden had said nothing at Plymouth of meeting Rosamund in London, and she was hardly to be blamed for drawing the most sinist

s denied the consolation of knowing that the woman who destroyed her happiness was pacing another room like a caged tigress, and st