CrOT^ 
 
 >;/^
 
 THE WEONG EOAD
 
 THE WRONG ROAD 
 
 BY HOOK OE CROOK 
 
 BY 
 
 MAJOK AETHUE GEIFFITHS 
 
 author of 
 'fast and loose,' 'locked up,' etc. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS 
 
 EDINBURGIH AND LONDON 
 
 MDCCCLXXXVIII 
 
 All Bights reserved
 
 
 / 
 
 CONTENTS OF THE FIRST TOLUME. 
 
 ■S) 
 
 t^ 
 
 
 w> 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 *v 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 I. 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 "C:^ 
 
 II. 
 
 
 III. 
 
 A 
 
 IV. 
 
 (Vi 
 
 
 
 V. 
 
 -^^ 
 
 VI. 
 
 ri 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 VII. 
 
 •r^ 
 
 VIII. 
 
 '.■) 
 
 
 
 IX. 
 
 p 
 
 X. 
 
 C>^ 
 
 ^tt- 
 
 XI. 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 >5 
 
 XII. 
 
 "V! 
 
 
 <-Z 
 
 
 N 
 
 XIII. 
 
 V 
 
 
 ^i- 
 
 
 
 XIV. 
 
 a mysterious malady, 
 colonel st evelyn, 
 carysfort's guardian, 
 IN Lincoln's inn, 
 lady lezaire gives way, 
 arrivals at the hall, 
 a first passage of arms, 
 Hubert's parentage, . 
 what came of a fight, 
 
 the COLONEL WORSTED, 
 COUNTY VEXATIONS, 
 DOCTORS DO NOT DIFFER, 
 THE coroner's JURY, . 
 FURTHER INQUIRY, 
 
 PAGE 
 1 
 
 14 
 26 
 36 
 
 47 
 
 59 
 
 70 
 
 81 
 
 91 
 
 102 
 
 115 
 
 126 
 
 138 
 
 ]49
 
 VI 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 XV. THE POLICE AT WORK, . 
 XVI. EARSWICK ALIAS QUELCH, 
 
 XVII. Taylor's ' toxicology/ 
 
 XVIII. documentary EVIDENCE, 
 
 XIX. the chemist op cleobury, . 
 
 XX. A cloak, coat, or cape, 
 XXI. the case is clear, 
 
 XXII. AT DIEPPE, .... 
 
 XXIII, ON THE TRIAL SIDE, 
 
 XXIV. MRS ST EVELYN HEARS, 
 
 158 
 170 
 182 
 192 
 206 
 219 
 232 
 247 
 259 
 272
 
 THE WKONG ROAD. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 A MYSTERIOUS MALADY. 
 
 There was intense excitement at Straddlethorpe 
 Hall. The young owner, Sir Carysfort Lezaire, 
 had been seized with a sudden illness, and lay 
 at the point of death. The local doctor had 
 been summoned from Market Keepham, and 
 had given the young baronet his best attention 
 from the moment of the first attack. But Mr 
 Freshener, although a duly qualified practi- 
 tioner, confessed that he was utterly at fault. 
 Sir Carysfort had been perfectly well that 
 VOL. L A
 
 2 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 same afternoon. It was not till tlie end of 
 dinner that lie complained of nausea and violent 
 pains in the intestines. Lady Lezaire, his de- 
 voted mother, who watched over every ache 
 and pain of her beloved son with an unremit- 
 ting attention, immediately begged Sir Carys- 
 fort to take to his bed. 
 
 Directly she got him safe between the sheets, 
 she tried the usual panaceas familiar to nursery 
 treatment. Ginger cordials, hot bottles, fomen- 
 tations, and such simple remedies were applied, 
 but with no effect. The nausea continued, and 
 soon developed into violent fits of sickness. Sir 
 Carysfort now also complained of terrible pain 
 and depression. 
 
 By this time Lady Lezaire's anxiety was com- 
 municated to the rest of the household. Her 
 daughter, Mrs St Evelyn, appeared in the sick- 
 room, and begged to be allowed to share in the 
 nursing. Colonel St Evelyn, her son-in-law, 
 expressed equal solicitude, and, much against 
 her will, came and sat by the sick lad's bed- 
 side.
 
 A MYSTERIOUS MALADY. 3 
 
 . The evening drew on, and Sir Carysfort's 
 condition certainly did not improve. 
 
 "Mr Freshener must be sent for, and that 
 without loss of time," said Lady Lezaire. 
 
 " Do you think that necessary ? " asked Col- 
 onel St Evelyn, who still continued in the room. 
 '^It is nothing more than a bilious attack. 
 Carysfort is always so imprudent. Where has 
 he been to-day ? Does any one know ? " 
 
 " Fishing," cried another voice from the bot- 
 tom of the bed. " I was with him." 
 
 The speaker was young Hubert Podifat, who, 
 like a favourite hound, had taken his post by 
 Sir Carysfort's bedside a couple of hours before. 
 No one had noticed the young man particularly : 
 it was thought quite natural that he should 
 devote himself to his patron and friend. 
 
 " I insist upon having a doctor ! " repeated 
 Lady Lezaire, imperatively. " If you will not 
 send a message for me, Ferdinand, I must do it 
 myself." 
 
 " Let me go," interposed Hubert, eagerly. 
 
 " You are a good boy," Lady Lezaire said.
 
 4 BY HOOK OR CKOOK. 
 
 " Tell Gibbings to send one of the grooms off, 
 mounted, to Market Reepham." 
 
 " It is really quite preposterous," said the 
 Colonel, with some irritation. " I wonder you 
 don't keep a doctor permanently upon the 
 premises." 
 
 Lady Lezaire did not deign to reply, but 
 looked at her son-in-law in a manner which did 
 not betoken much ardent affection. 
 
 " I suppose I am not wanted any more," said 
 the Colonel ; " but if I can be of the least use, 
 pray send for me. You will find me in the 
 study down-stairs." 
 
 He retired to his own sanctum, and was pres- 
 ently enjoying a Trichinopoly cheroot, and the 
 latest edition of Euff's Guide. 
 
 Quite an hour elapsed before Mr Freshener 
 arrived. By this time Sir Carysfort's sufferings 
 were aggravated in every particular — the for- 
 mer symptoms continued unchanged, and in 
 addition he complained of a hot skin, a dry 
 parched throat, his gums were swollen, and 
 there was much salivation of the tongue.
 
 A MYSTERIOUS MALADY. 5 
 
 " I really am quite perplexed," said little Mr 
 Freshener. " I don't understand it at all." 
 
 " Is it a case quite beyond your skill ? " asked 
 Lady Lezaire. ''Can you do nothing for my 
 poor boy ? " 
 
 " The symptoms are most peculiar," replied 
 the local doctor, "and the only treatment that 
 suggests itself, I am not prepared to administer." 
 
 " Is there anything we can do ? " asked Lady 
 Lezaire. " I have a medicine-chest." 
 
 "Yes, my lady; but have you a stomach- 
 pump « 
 
 " I am afraid not. Is it necessary ? " 
 
 " Not absolutely, I trust ; but it is the sim- 
 plest treatment that occurs to me. If you will 
 allow me, I will send my man back to the sur- 
 gery for that and other requisites. Meanwhile, 
 I will try bleeding, and if possible let Sir Carys- 
 fort have a warm bath." 
 
 The doctor's messenger went and returned, 
 but the baronet's condition remained much the 
 same. 
 
 " I really do not know what to do. I never
 
 6 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 was SO perplexed," the little doctor repeated 
 again and again. 
 
 " Perhaps you would like other advice called 
 in," suggested Lady Lezaire. " Do not hesitate. 
 Everything shall be done that the case may 
 demand. My darling boy's health comes be- 
 fore everything else. Whom would you sug- 
 gest ? " 
 
 " Well, my lady, in a case so obscure, the 
 brightest lights of the profession alone can 
 guide us. If I might venture to suggest, I 
 should say summon Sir Peregrine Falcon." 
 
 " All the way from London ? " put in a new 
 voice. It was that of Colonel St Evelyn, who 
 had returned. " Have you any idea, Lady 
 Lezaire, what his fee would be ? Those great 
 swells charge at so much a mile." 
 
 " What is that compared with the life of my 
 child ? " She turned indignantly from her son- 
 in-law, and said to Mr Freshener, " Do you 
 suppose, Mr Freshener, that Sir Peregrine 
 would come ? " 
 
 " Failing him, we can send for Dr John
 
 A MYSTERIOUS MALADY. 7 
 
 Robinson. I should advise your wiring for 
 both." 
 
 '' I may repeat, I think this very unneces- 
 sary," said Colonel St Evelyn. 
 
 " I cannot see that it is any affair of yours," 
 replied Lady Lezaire ; " and in a matter of such 
 vital importance I shall act as I think best." 
 
 Telegrams were forthwith indited and de- 
 spatched. Silence closed on the sick - room, 
 broken only by the coming and going of the 
 attendants, and the groans and hard breathing 
 of the unfortunate patient as he writhed in 
 agony on his bed of pain. 
 
 Let me pause here to state that Straddle- 
 thorpe was in a Midland county, more than a 
 hundred miles from town. 
 
 The night was now so far advanced that, even 
 if the telegrams reached Harley Street before 
 morning, there was but little chance of Sir 
 Peregrine Falcon or his colleague catching any- 
 thing earlier than the newspaper-train. This 
 would bring them to Market Reepham by about 
 7.30 A.M., whence a carriage could drive them
 
 8 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 over to the Hall in about half an hour. Nine 
 or ten long hours intervened till then, and, as 
 Mr Freshener pointed out, all that could be 
 done was to carefully tend and nurse Sir Carys- 
 fort through the night. It was just possible 
 that unremitting care and the continual ap- 
 plication of the remedies recommended might 
 keep him alive till the following day. 
 
 It was arranged that Mr Freshener should 
 remain with his patient all night. Lady Lez- 
 aire and Mrs St Evelyn, assisted by Mrs Leleu, 
 the housekeeper, agreed to sit up with him also, 
 and nothing could induce the devoted Podifat 
 to go to bed. 
 
 That terrible night dragged itself slowly 
 along. Fresh paroxysms and crises constantly 
 supervened, but Sir Carysfort struggled bravely 
 through them all. Towards dawn Lady Lezaire, 
 worn out with watching and anxiety, dozed off 
 to sleep. Mrs St Evelyn, although equally 
 worn out, gently woke her mother, and begged 
 her to lie down, if only for an hour. 
 
 " I will remain with dear Carysfort until you
 
 A MYSTERIOUS MALADY. 9 
 
 have rested. You will be fresher then to see 
 Sir Peregrine when he arrives." 
 
 After much entreaty Lady Lezaire reluctantly 
 yielded to her daughter's earnest solicitations. 
 Mrs St Evelyn also persuaded Hubert Podifat 
 to retire for a time. Mr Freshener withdrew to 
 the library, where a light supper was laid out 
 for him, and for the moment Mrs St Evelyn 
 was left alone with her brother. 
 
 Sir Carysfort seemed somewhat easier as the 
 light grew stronger. The season was spring, 
 the weather warm, and the chirping of the 
 awakening birds was heard through the case- 
 ments as they greeted the returning day. .Sir 
 Carysfort turned his lack-lustre eyes towards 
 the windows, and made a feeble motion as if 
 praying for more air. Mrs St Evelyn readily 
 interpreted the unspoken wish, and threw up 
 one of the sashes. The morning breeze came 
 in, laden with the fragrance of a thousand 
 blossoms, and for a moment Mrs St Evelyn 
 leant out, as if seeking to fully realise their 
 sweetness.
 
 10 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 As she stood there, with her back to the 
 room, she was suddenly startled by the pressure 
 of a hand lightly laid upon her shoulder. Turn- 
 ing hastily, she saw that it was her husband. 
 
 " Oh, Ferdy, how you frightened me ! I did 
 not hear you come in." 
 
 " I was afraid of disturbing poor Carysfort, so 
 I trod as lightly as I could. How is he ? " 
 
 " Better, I think. He has been free from 
 nausea for nearly an hour." 
 
 " But you, my dearest child, you must be 
 nearly done up. How is it I find you all by 
 yourself ? " 
 
 " I insisted upon mother going off to bed, 
 and Hubert has also just left the room. I am 
 not in the least tired ; I shall have plenty of 
 time to rest by-and-by." 
 
 " You are a true soldier's wife, Eachel, and 
 rise to emergencies. I never thought my quiet 
 little woman would have come out so strong." 
 
 She turned up her face to his with the grati- 
 fied gaze of a child who has been commended. 
 It was a childish face still, with no great
 
 A MYSTERIOUS MALADY. 11 
 
 strengtli or firmness about it — sweet, womanly, 
 and confiding. 
 
 Colonel St Evelyn stooped his head and kissed 
 her gently on the lips. 
 
 " Is there anything I can do ? May I not 
 share your hours of watching ? " 
 
 " No, my dearest husband. The sick-room is 
 not the place for a man. Besides, we shall want 
 you to receive the great London doctor when 
 he arrives. Come, Ferdy, be persuaded, and 
 go off to bed." 
 
 Colonel St Evelyn passed his arm round his 
 wife's waist, and again kissed her. Thus they 
 approached Sir Carysfort's bedside, and together 
 stood looking at his face. His eyes were closed, 
 and he seemed to be asleep, undisturbed for the 
 moment by his late excruciating pains. Mrs St 
 Evelyn parted from her husband at the door, 
 and returning to her place sat quietly watching, 
 ready to attend instantly to her brother's needs. 
 
 By-and-by Sir Carysfort awoke, and muttered 
 almost unintelligibly a querulous demand for 
 drink. A tumbler of lime-juice and water stood
 
 12 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 by the bedside, and this Mrs St Evelyn applied 
 at once to his lips. Sir Carysfort took a long 
 draught, and again sank back on his pillow. 
 
 Another hour passed, and the Hall gradually 
 aroused itself from the slumbers of the night. 
 There were the usual sounds of feet hurrying 
 along the corridors, bells ringing, and the gen- 
 eral movements that showed the servants were 
 astir. 
 
 Lady Lezaire was still in her room. Mrs 
 Leleu, the housekeeper, who had shared the last 
 night's watch with Mrs St Evelyn, had also 
 retired to rest. Hubert Podifat was nowhere 
 to be seen, nor Colonel St Evelyn. Rachel was 
 alone in the sick-room. 
 
 From her now came a terrified summons to 
 the household. The young baronet was much 
 worse. A new paroxysm had supervened, and 
 the old agonising symptoms had reappeared, 
 enhanced fourfold. 
 
 " It is most extraordinary," said Mr Freshener, 
 who thus characterised everything new in his 
 experience. " And I understand, Mrs St Eve-
 
 A MYSTERIOUS MALADY. 13 
 
 lyn, that until just now he seemed certainly 
 better ? " 
 
 "Yes," replied the baronet's sister, " Carys- 
 fort had been sleeping quite quietly ever since 
 Mrs Leleu left him, and this is the first fit that 
 has attacked him for several hours." 
 
 " It is most extraordinary," the country prac- 
 titioner could only say; " I am quite perplexed." 
 
 " Oh ! if the London doctors would only 
 arrive ! What, what, can detain them ? " cried 
 Lady Lezaire, in an agony of heartfelt despair.
 
 14 
 
 CHAPTEE 11. 
 
 COLONEL ST EVELYN. 
 
 While the nnliappy motlier and sister are 
 tending the sore - stricken lad, let us retrace 
 our steps to a time antecedent by just a couple 
 of years. 
 
 The scene is the table dliote of the Eoches 
 Noires, Trouville, in the height of summer. 
 
 The guests were of all nationalities. French 
 predominated, of course, but there were represen- 
 tatives of almost all nations, Christians of every 
 category and colour, their distinctive character- 
 istics showing plainly through the somewhat 
 uniform veneer of a common civilisation. 
 
 Table traits were no less clearly particularised 
 than personal appearance. Here the French-
 
 COLONEL ST EVELYN. 15 
 
 man chopped up his meat, then fed himself with 
 his fork, as though he was still in the nursery, 
 and could not be trusted with a knife ; there 
 the Teuton might with advantage have been 
 deprived of an implement he seemed to mistake 
 for a spoon, but which he handled with the skill 
 of an Indian juggler accustomed to swallow 
 swords. Aristocratic ladies washed their 
 mouths out and spat in the finger-glasses ; the 
 use of toothpicks was by no means tabooed ; 
 napkins, having one end knotted and fastened 
 into the collar, hung pendant like an infant's 
 bib ; greedy English youths piled up their 
 plates with green peas, and then poured them 
 like fluid down their ravenous throats. 
 
 Above all, above the jingling of glasses, the 
 clatter of knives and forks, the racing to and 
 fro of an army of waiters, rose the never-ending 
 clacking of hundreds of tongues — a Babel of 
 voices, French, German, English, in all varieties 
 of idiom and accent — so inextricably mingled 
 and confused that the sounds at a little distance 
 might have proceeded from a menagerie full of
 
 16 BY HOOK OE CROOK. 
 
 monkeys or a swarm of chattering magpies in 
 a wood. 
 
 Among the rest, seated at the end of t)ne of 
 the long tables — the lowly places of the newly 
 arrived — was a small party of English, unmis- 
 takable islanders ; mother, son, and daughter, 
 under the especial care of another, a good-look- 
 ing, well-preserved, evidently military man, not 
 exactly young, but hardly arrived yet at middle 
 age. 
 
 The family party was that of the Lezaires : 
 the mother, widow of Sir Percy Lezaire, a bar- 
 onet of Thorpeshire, not long deceased ; her 
 only son. Sir Carysfort, a boy barely in his 
 teens ; and her only daughter, Eachel, a sweet 
 artless maiden, budding already into woman- 
 hood. 
 
 Their friend and cicerone was Colonel St 
 Evelyn, an acquaintance of not long standing, 
 who had owed his first introduction to the time- 
 ly succour he had afforded Miss Lezaire that 
 season when in trouble with a runaway horse 
 in the Eow. Since then the acquaintance had
 
 COLONEL ST EVELYN. 17 
 
 developed rapidly, quite into intimacy, whicli 
 was still further fostered and encouraged by the 
 sociable free and easy life of a French watering- 
 place. 
 
 Colonel St Evelyn was a man of the world : 
 he had seen much of it, and knew France, includ- 
 ing Paris, particularly well. 
 
 Lady Lezaire found him a most delightful 
 companion. Now, at dinner, he pointed out all 
 the celebrities at table. 
 
 " That rather matronly lady, with the pretty 
 childlike face ? Madame Pornic — you must 
 have heard of her — one of the cleverest actresses 
 on the French stage, noted for her childlike 
 innocence of manner — you can see it for your- 
 self — ah ! gives immense piquancy " — here the 
 Colonel lowered his voice to a whisper, which 
 only reached Lady Lezaire — "to the most 
 risque speeches. Proper ? Of course, otherwise 
 I should not have pointed her out to you." 
 
 " Who is that tall graceful woman there ? 
 How aristocratic she looks ! One of the old 
 noblesse ? " 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 18 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 " Not quite. That is Madame Josse : her 
 husband is the proprietor of the Grand Kabais, 
 the great magasins, you know, in the Kue du 
 Lac. He's enormously rich ! " 
 
 " And, as usual, married rank ? " 
 
 "Not at all. She was one of his vendeuses, 
 a saleswoman, who had the good sense to play 
 for the biggest stake. It furnished the plot 
 for one of Zola's most successful novels — 
 'Mademoiselle Ernestine' — you should read 
 it." 
 
 "If vou recommend it, I am sure it must be 
 nice," said Lady Lezaire ; " but I am a little 
 afraid of French novels." 
 
 " I like French puddings," put in Sir Carys- 
 fort, his mouth full of a jparfait a la creme. 
 
 "And I everything French," added Kachel, 
 who was radiant with happiness. It was quite 
 clear that she had looked forward to meeting 
 St Evelyn, and was delighted that all had 
 happened as she wished. Already one or two 
 little tender asides had assured her of the 
 interest that Colonel St Evelyn took in her, %
 
 COLONEL ST EVELYN. 19 
 
 and consoled her for the marked attention lie 
 was paying mamma. 
 
 For Colonel St Evelyn, like an old cam- 
 paigner, was establishing himself firmly at the 
 base of operations. He knew that if he was to 
 win the daughter, he must first get the mother 
 on his side, and he saw no better means of 
 attaining this than by throwing himself at 
 Lady Lezaire's feet. 
 
 Her ladyship, vain and self-satisfied, was 
 rejoiced at the impression she had made. 
 Colonel St Evelyn was a man of taste, who 
 could appreciate her matronly common-sense, 
 and see beauty in her mature charms. She 
 accepted his attentions with cordial approval, 
 and was already on the best terms with him. 
 
 They spent nearly all day together : in the 
 evening Colonel St Evelyn took them to the 
 Casino, where they sauntered through the 
 gardens under the moonlight, or lingered in 
 one of the Mosques, where the game of race- 
 horses, the popular petits chevaux of every 
 seaside place, was in full swing, and where
 
 20 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 young Carysfort rapidly developed a passion for 
 play. He backed the little horses wildly, and 
 at first lost a considerable sum. Lady Lezaire's 
 purse was, of course, at his service, and Colonel 
 St Evelyn's experienced advice. Then luck 
 turned, and the young baronet's pockets were 
 rapidly filled. 
 
 " If Hubert were only here ! " cried Carys- 
 fort, his eyes dancing with excitement and 
 greed. 
 
 "And who is Hubert ?" asked St Evelyn. 
 
 "A poor lad who lives with us at the Hall," 
 replied Lady Lezaire. " He was a protege of 
 my poor dear husband's, who adopted him 
 , when deserted by his parents. They had been 
 in his service, you know, and now Carysfort has 
 taken such a fancy to him that at home they 
 are never apart. I must say he is devoted to 
 my dear boy in return." 
 
 There was something in Eachel's face, which 
 Colonel St Evelyn watched constantly, that led 
 him to suppose that Hubert was no favourite of 
 hers. Anxious to know all he could of his new
 
 COLONEL ST EVELYN. 21 
 
 friends and their surroundings, he took the first 
 opportunity of questioning Eachel about this 
 " Hubert." It was when they had entered the 
 great ball-room of the Casino, and he had per- 
 suaded her to take a turn in a waltz. 
 
 "You do not seem to care much for Hubert, 
 whoever he may be," he said, coaxingly. " He 
 is very much to be pitied, I think." 
 
 " I am sure you would not like him either," 
 replied Eachel, blushing at the implied compli- 
 ment. " A common, ill-bred young man, not a 
 fit companion for Carysfort. It is a great pity 
 they are so much together." 
 
 " Does your brother go to Eton, or Harrow, 
 or where?" 
 
 '* Nowhere. He ought to go to school, don't 
 you think ? I have always said so, but mother 
 will not listen to me. As it is, he learns 
 nothing, and is always in the stables or the 
 gun-room, hunting, shooting, or fishing, always 
 with Hubert, and perpetually getting into mis- 
 chief and bad ways." 
 
 "What a sensible little woman you are. Miss
 
 22 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 Lezaire ! I wish you would give me advice 
 sometimes." 
 
 " You would not take it, perhaps, like mam- 
 ma," replied Each el, archly. 
 
 '* Only try me," said St Evelyn, earnestly. 
 " You cannot believe, I cannot well express to 
 you, the deep value I attach to every word you 
 say." 
 
 Eachel looked up at him shyly for one 
 moment, then dropped her eyes quickly. Ther^ 
 was a meaning in his great dark eyes, fixed on 
 her with passionate regard, which she could not 
 misunderstand. 
 
 Little Kachel was more than half fascinated 
 already. 
 
 Lady Lezaire could hardly condescend to be 
 jealous of her daughter, nor did she suspect as 
 yet that any flirtation was in progress between 
 Kachel and Colonel St Evelyn. But she had 
 the woman's instinct that guesses a rival almost 
 intuitively, and she could not refrain from 
 passing a little unkindly criticism even on her 
 own daughter.
 
 COLONEL ST EVELYN. 23 
 
 " Children are a great deal of trouble to me," 
 she said next day to tjie Colonel. 
 
 " They want a firm strong hand," replied the 
 Colonel, sympathetically ; " now your boy " 
 
 ** Oh ! it is not dear Carysfort I am complain- 
 ing of. Darling child ! he never gives me a 
 moment's anxiety." 
 
 She forgot that at that moment the dear 
 child was in physic, French living having al- 
 ready rendered medical treatment necessary. 
 
 " I was thinking of my daughter : a girl like 
 that is a great responsibility." 
 
 " Surely she will relieve you of it ere long. 
 Miss Lezaire is so charming that she ought to 
 marry soon and well." 
 
 " That little chit ! Don't speak of it. Why, 
 she is barely out of the schoolroom. So gauche, 
 too, so awkward, so utterly unformed, that I 
 fear no one will be taken with her." 
 
 "Pinafores and bread-and-butter are not 
 every one's taste, certainly," said the deceitful 
 Colonel. " Very young girls are most insipid, 
 I must confess."
 
 24 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 ** Eachel is a child, a perfect child, in mind 
 as well as in appearance. It will be years 
 before she is marriageable — loiig after she comes 
 of age, I expect." 
 
 "Miss Lezaire is still a long way off coming 
 of age, I should think," remarked the Colonel, 
 carelessly. 
 
 " Certainly ; two or three years or more. 
 Not but what she won't be her own mistress 
 before she is twenty-one." 
 
 St Evelyn pricked up his ears. 
 
 " Her father," went on Lady Lezaire, " very 
 unwisely, I think, and without consulting me, 
 left it in his will that she should have her por- 
 tion directly she married." 
 
 " With your consent, of course ? " 
 
 " My daughter would not be likely to marry 
 without it," said Lady Lezaire evasively, and in 
 a cold constrained tone of voice. " But I hope 
 she will not think of anything of the kind for 
 some time to come. I quite dread it, I assure 
 you." 
 
 "The responsibility is of course very great," -
 
 COLONEL ST EVELYN. 25 
 
 said Colonel St Evelyn, seriously. "It is al- 
 most too much for a woman to bear alone." 
 
 " I feel it so, indeed ; the burden presses me 
 sorely at times." 
 
 " I should like " St Evelyn paused, and 
 
 Lady Lezaire looked down, seemingly expecting 
 some tender confessions. " I should like," he 
 went on — " I mean if at any time I can be of 
 the least service to you ; if my poor advice, my 
 humble efforts, can save you from trouble and 
 annoyance, dear Lady Lezaire, I beg of you to 
 dispose of me as you please. You can count on 
 my devotion ; pray believe that." 
 
 " I do, most willingly and entirely ; .you 
 would act as a true friend, I am sure." And 
 Lady Lezaire gave him her hand, which he 
 kissed with respectful homage, as though bind- 
 ing himself to obey her lightest behest.
 
 26 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 carysfort's guardian. 
 
 They were a very friendly and merry party in 
 those days at Trouville. Colonel St Evelyn 
 devoted himself entirely to the Lezaires, making 
 himself acceptable to each in turn. Carysfort 
 thought him an " A 1 chap." The Colonel took 
 him to bathe every morning, and taught him to 
 swim and tread water, and take headers off the 
 splash-board into the great rolling waves that 
 came in from the Atlantic when the sea was 
 rough. They went off together on long fishing 
 expeditions, carrying great prawn-nets, round 
 the point towards Villerville, with their trousers 
 tucked up above their knees. Every evening, 
 at the Casino, St Evelyn helped the boy to bet
 
 caeysfort's guardian. 27 
 
 upon the race-game, and rather pandered to his 
 propensity for play. 
 
 These constant attentions to her beloved boy 
 would have been enough to have won Lady 
 Lezaire's heart, but the Colonel made more 
 direct attacks upon her. He kept himself al- 
 ways at her disposal ; was ever ready to parade 
 the plank-walks of Trouville when rank and 
 fashion came out to sun themselves upon the 
 beach ; or was content to sit for hours by her 
 chair on the sands, amusing her with gossip 
 from London or Paris. He was always gay, 
 always amusing, invariably deferential ; yet he 
 took care to invest the commonest phrases with 
 a tenderness that implied the deepest admira- 
 tion, tempered with unbounded respect. 
 
 Little Eachel, however, was the happiest of 
 the whole party. Publicly, although always 
 studiously polite, St Evelyn took no particular 
 notice of her; only when they were alone to- 
 gether — and they had many opportunities for 
 pleasant little tete-d-tetes — he made up for his 
 coldness, and pressed his suit with all the vigour
 
 28 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 of a younger man. They met for a moment or 
 two in retired corners of the various saloons of 
 the hotel, or on the balcony under the moon- 
 light when Lady Lezaire had gone up-stairs ; or 
 more often still, at the Casino dances, where it 
 seemed quite natural that St Evelyn should 
 take her for his partner, seeing that there was 
 no one else there she knew. After the first day 
 or two, Eachel and St Evelyn quite understood 
 each other : her heart, innocent, guileless, and 
 trustful, had gone straight out to this the first 
 man who had told her that he loved her. No 
 wonder that Eachel Lezaire was so blithe and 
 joyous at Trouville. 
 
 St Evelyn had not yet considered how best 
 to obtain Lady Lezaire's consent and approval. 
 He was content for the moment with the know- 
 ledge that he had succeeded with Eachel, the 
 first and principal end after all. If she were 
 only stanch and loyal to him, as he had every 
 reason to hope, he felt confident that her mother 
 might be won over in the end. But it would 
 be wisest and best to watch and wait, to feel
 
 carysfort's guardian. 29 
 
 his way carefully, and make the most of any 
 circumstances or opportunities that might turn 
 up in his favour. Meanwhile he made Kachel 
 promise to whisper no word of their engagement 
 to her mother or any one else. 
 
 In the third week of their stay at Trouville 
 there came news at which Lady Lezaire was 
 greatly upset. 
 
 " Mr Prendergast is dead," said Lady Lezaire, 
 coming down on the sands after breakfast to 
 where Kachel sat with Carysfort and Colonel 
 St Evelyn. 
 
 " Poor dear old man ! " exclaimed Eachel. 
 
 **I don't care," said Carysfort, in the same 
 breath. ** I hated him." 
 
 ''For shame, Carysfort! Don't say such 
 things. But it is most perplexing. I did not 
 like him much I confess ; he was never nice to 
 Carysfort ; still he did his best, and it will be 
 difficult to replace him." 
 
 " What shall you do, mother ? Whom shall 
 you get ? " asked Eachel. 
 
 " 1 can't think, I can't talk about it " — and
 
 30 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 Lady Lezaire stood there in evident perturba- 
 tion — now reading for the twentieth time a 
 black-edged letter she held in her hand, now 
 looking askance at St Evelyn. 
 
 *' I fear I am de trop,'' said the Colonel, get- 
 ting up from his chair; "you want to discuss 
 family affairs. I will go for a walk and rejoin 
 you by-and-by." 
 
 *' No, no, Colonel St Evelyn, do not leave us. 
 We shall, perhaps, be glad of your advice." 
 
 "It is heartily at your service, dear Lady 
 Lezaire, as I have often told you before." 
 
 " I have just heard of the death of Mr Pren- 
 dergast, Carysfort's guardian." 
 
 " I hated him," said the boy again — '' cross- 
 grained old beast ! He wanted to send me to 
 school." 
 
 "Do be quiet, Carysfort; it is quite too 
 dreadful to hear you. Mr Prendergast was 
 not all that could be desired, perhaps, but he 
 did his duty, I believe, honestly and well. 
 I only wish I knew where to find a suc- 
 cessor."
 
 carysfort's guardian. 31 
 
 " Oh, Colonel ! won't you be my guardian ? " 
 cried Carysfort, impulsively. "That would be 
 jolly, and you could come and stay with us at 
 the Hall." 
 
 " You foolish boy ! " said St Evelyn, laughing 
 pleasantly, "you must not get such silly notions 
 into your head." 
 
 " Why not ? " observed Lady Lezaire, gravely, 
 more in answer to her own thoughts than to 
 anything that had been said. 
 
 " If I can help you, dear lady, in any diffi- 
 culty," began St Evelyn ; but he saw that Lady 
 Lezaire, pondering deeply, and communing with 
 herself, was not listening, so he wisely forbpre 
 to recommend himself further. 
 
 Eachel, whose heart had fluttered wildly at 
 Carysfort's suggestion, which opened up a sub- 
 stantial hope that St Evelyn's suit might yet 
 prove acceptable, said nothing. But there was 
 a tell-tale blush on her cheek and a glad light 
 in her eyes, which showed how eagerly she 
 welcomed the idea of her lover's appointment 
 as guardian. It meant his admission into the
 
 32 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 family, and the speedy removal of any obstacles 
 to their marriage. 
 
 Nothing more was said on the subject just 
 then ; but Lady Lezaire returned to it that 
 evening as she and Colonel St Evelyn paced 
 the Casino gardens alone. 
 
 "May I talk business for a moment, Colonel 
 St Evelyn ? " she began. " I have been distracted 
 with doubt all day, hesitating and uncertain as 
 to the right thing to do ; but at last I have 
 made up my mind — will you accept the guar- 
 dianship of my boy ? " 
 
 " Oh, Lady Lezaire ! " 
 
 " It is a great deal to ask of you I know ; the 
 burden will be great, the responsibility heavy." 
 
 " I am not afraid of that, believe me." 
 
 *' Carysfort's fortune is large, his minority 
 must last for eight years more, and a long and 
 onerous stewardship would be imposed upon 
 you." 
 
 *' I am ready to accept the trust, if you think 
 me worthy of it. I can only promise to do my 
 best."
 
 carysfort's guardian. 33 
 
 ^^ Of that I have not the slightest doubt ; I 
 think I can rely upon your loyalty and devo- 
 tion : my son's best interests will be safe in your 
 hands." 
 
 " Dear Lady Lezaire, you overwhelm me : 
 how shall I express my deep gratitude for your 
 good opinion ? I am touched, deeply touched, 
 by it ; it encourages me to hope that ere long 
 some nearer and dearer tie " 
 
 " Do not talk like that, please," interrupted 
 Lady Lezaire, whose vanity led her to mis- 
 understand his words ; but j ust at this moment, 
 when anxiously concerned with her son's imme- 
 diate future, the image of her dead husband 
 occupied all her mind, and she could not toler- 
 ate addresses, for so she construed St Evelyn's 
 language, from another man. "Let us think 
 only of Carysfort to-night; by -and -by, per- 
 haps " 
 
 " Then you do not forbid me to hope ? " said 
 Colonel St Evelyn, taking her hand. 
 
 ^^ I can't say — you must wait — we will see," 
 VOL. I. c
 
 34 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 said Lady Lezaire, greatly embarrassed, still 
 satisfied that St Evelyn was thinking only of 
 her. 
 
 Did the astute Colonel see her mistake ? It 
 could hardly be otherwise — her agitation, her 
 confidences, must have told him that she took 
 to herself the tender pleading that he meant 
 for Eachel Lezaire. Yet he did not undeceive 
 her, as he ought clearly to have done ; but he 
 feared Lady Lezaire's righteous indignation 
 when she found herself disdained, and felt that 
 it would lose him both the guardianship and 
 all hope of winning Eachel's hand. 
 
 " It shall be as you wish," said St Evelyn. 
 " What I have to say to you, dear Lady Lezaire, 
 although of the deepest importance to me and 
 my happiness in life, will keep for another 
 time. We will stick to business to-night, if 
 you wish." 
 
 " That will be better," said Lady Lezaire, with 
 a little coquettish laugh. " Business first, pleas- 
 ure afterwards. There is a great deal to talk
 
 carysfort's guardian. 35 
 
 over, if you are to take the management of 
 Carysfort's affairs." 
 
 " There is my hand on it," said St Evelyn, 
 gravely ; and after that an hour or more were 
 fully occupied with business details.
 
 36 
 
 CHAPTEE lY. 
 
 IN Lincoln's inn. 
 
 Mr Prendergast's death, and the appointment 
 of a new guardian, shortened the visit to Trou- 
 ville, and necessitated a speedy return to town. 
 The Lezaires occupied their house in Connaught 
 Place, and the Colonel went back to his lodging 
 in Bury Street. It was now the early autumn, 
 and his club was closed for cleaning ; but for the 
 first time since he lived at it, St Evelyn was 
 independent of the " Battle-axe and Banner." 
 There was always a knife and fork ready for 
 him in Connaught Place, and it was an "un- 
 common snug house to hang up your hat in," 
 as he complacently told his friends. 
 
 Lady Lezaire, directly she returned to town,
 
 IN Lincoln's inn. 37 
 
 informed the family lawyers, Messrs Harvey & 
 Tinson, of the selection she had made of a new 
 guardian. 
 
 "Have you known this Colonel St Evelyn 
 long ? The name is familiar to me," said Mr 
 Tinson, who was now the principal partner in 
 the firm : an attorney of the spruce man-of-the- 
 world type, who prided himself upon his insight 
 into fashionable life, and his acquaintance with 
 every one in the West End. 
 
 "He is a distinguished military officer," began 
 Lady Lezaire, "and belongs to the 'Battle-axe 
 and Banner.'" 
 
 "I thought I knew him: a bold black-faced 
 man, quite middle-aged, with a well-preserved 
 figure." 
 
 " Not more than forty at most," interrupted 
 Lady Lezaire. 
 
 "Dyes, I should say, and probably wears 
 stays." 
 
 " What can his appearance have to do with 
 his appointment as guardian ? " again inter- 
 rupted Lady Lezaire, this time with some spirit.
 
 38 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 " Not much, of course," said the lawyer, look- 
 ing keenly at his client ; " he is a most engaging 
 agreeable person, no doubt, and you of course 
 are perfectly satisfied as to his character and 
 qualifications for so important a trust." 
 
 " He is a gentleman ; honourable " Mr 
 
 Tinson looked at her and nodded enigmatically ; 
 it might have been approval, or a suspicious 
 distrust ; " straightforward " — another nod ; 
 "well to do, with proper feelings, and very 
 sensible ideas." 
 
 Mr Tinson, who had nodded at each adjective, 
 now asked, " In business, or matrimonially ? " 
 
 "How can you hint at such a thing!" ex- 
 claimed Lady Lezaire, indignantly. 
 
 '*I would not presume for one moment to 
 force your ladyship's confidence, and you will 
 forgive me if I am wrong. But this somewhat 
 sudden choice of a man whom six months ago 
 you did not know — am I not right ? — indicates 
 peculiar grounds for your preference." 
 
 The lawyer again looked keenly at Lady Lezaire, 
 who coloured slightly and cast down her eyes.
 
 IN Lincoln's inn. 39 
 
 "Mr Tinson," she went on, after an awful 
 pause, " you presume rather upon your position 
 as solicitor to the Lezaires. I did not come here 
 to consult you on any matter private and per- 
 sonal to myself, but to inform you of my ap- 
 pointment of a new guardian to my son." 
 
 " And I should be wanting in my duty. Lady 
 Lazaire, if I did not tell you what I knew about 
 him." 
 
 "You know nothing against Colonel St 
 Evelyn, I am sure." n 
 
 " I only know that he is to be seen at every 
 race meeting. If you want Sir Carysfort to be 
 brought up with a fine taste for racing — he is 
 already very fond of horses, I believe — you can't 
 do better than put him in Colonel St Evelyn's 
 hands. The Colonel bets largely, I believe, and 
 not always with success." 
 
 Lady Lezaire winced a little as she remem- 
 bered Carysfort's rapidl}^ developed passion for 
 the race-game at Trouville, under the Colonel's 
 kindly tuition ; but she was stanch to her new 
 friend.
 
 40 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 " Colonel St Evelyn is not the only gentle- 
 man who amuses himself on the turf. I have 
 no fears of his doing Carysfort any harm." 
 
 Mr Tinson waved his hands, as though wash- 
 ing them of all responsibility. 
 
 " If your ladyship is determined," he said, 
 " there is nothing further for me to say. By 
 the provisions of the late baronet's will, the 
 choice of a guardian is left in your hands should 
 a vacancy occur ; and you have decided, of course 
 after ample consideration, to take Colonel St 
 Evelyn 'for better, for worse.' " 
 
 The application of this phrase from the mar- 
 riage service annoyed Lady Lezaire. 
 
 "Mr Tinson," she said, "you forget yourself. 
 Your remarks border on impertinence." 
 
 " I am sure I meant no harm " — there was a 
 shade of mockery in this apology — "but now 
 if you will favour me with your instructions, I 
 shall be happy to carry them out." 
 
 Lady Lezaire, in a few brief words, ordered 
 the necessary deeds to be prepared for the ap- 
 pointment of Colonel St Evelyn, and then, with
 
 IN Lincoln's inn. 41 
 
 an air of dignified reserve, she bade Mr Tinson 
 good morning. 
 
 " Well, of all the old fools," said Mr Tinson to 
 himself, when he was alone, " commend me to a 
 middle-aged widow who w^ants to marry again. 
 She can know little or nothing of this man. 
 He is no better than a needy fortune-hunter, 
 addicted to gambling and heaven knows what 
 else, yet she is ready to put herself and her son 
 entirely in his hands. If she takes this Colonel 
 St Evelyn for a husband, she will repent it to 
 the day of her death." 
 
 A few days later, when the deeds had been 
 prepared, St Evelyn called on Mr Tinson to 
 sign them, and to be put in possession of the 
 particulars of his new trust. 
 
 There was not much cordiality in Mr Tin- 
 son's reception : he was stiff and distant in 
 his manner, inclining to be reticent and un- 
 communicative. The Colonel, who was cool 
 and off-hand, talked pleasantly, but in rather 
 a patronising way, as a man who was master 
 of the position.
 
 42 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 *^ I should be glad to know," he said, " the 
 exact amount of responsibility I incur." 
 
 "It is a heavy one," remarked Mr Tinson, 
 gravely; " the law is very strict with trustees 
 and guardians." 
 
 Colonel St Evelyn would not take offence. 
 " The law is not likely to fall foul of me ; I 
 have a wholesome horror of it and those who 
 practise it." 
 
 " Thank you," said Mr Tinson. 
 
 " Present company always excepted, of course," 
 laughed St Evelyn ; " but perhaps we had bet- 
 ter get on. The income from the Lezaire estates 
 is large ? " 
 
 " Upwards of £20,000 a-year," said Mr Tinson, 
 stiffly. 
 
 " Of which I understand barely half is allowed 
 for maintenance, the balance to accumulate dur- 
 ing the minority ? How, and by whom, are the 
 accumulations to be invested ? " 
 
 " By the guardian ; but only in securities 
 prescribed by the will." 
 
 " I shall see the will, of course ? " *
 
 •y- 
 
 IN Lincoln's inn. 43 
 
 '* If you insist ; but is it necessary ? I have 
 noted here all the provisions that deal with the 
 trust. You can hardly want to see the will." 
 
 "But I do. It is part of my duty. I hate 
 to be in the dark. What nonsense, man ! " he 
 went on, in a more peremptory tone, seeing 
 that the lawyer still hesitated ; *' can't I read the 
 will for a shilling if I go to Doctors' Commons ? " 
 
 " There is the will ; you can read it here," 
 said Mr Tinson. 
 
 St Evelyn took up the great parchment with 
 its ponderous seals, and unfolding it, sat him- 
 self down to read leisurely. Now and again he 
 made brief notes in a memorandum-book which 
 he took from his pocket, and occasionally he 
 addressed a few words of inquiry, seeking 
 explanation of Mr Tinson. 
 
 " Thank you," he said at length, '* I think 1 
 have mastered its contents ; now I should like 
 to run through the figures of the sums that have 
 already accrued from savings over expenditure, 
 so as to verify their investment according to the 
 will."
 
 44 BY HOOK OE CROOK. 
 
 " By all means, if you think it necessary ; 
 but your demand implies a certain mistrust." 
 
 " Not at all," said St Evelyn, blandly ; " but 
 it is right that, before assuming the trust, I 
 should satisfy myself that everything is regular, 
 and according to the conditions laid down." 
 
 ''Here is a list of all the investments," said 
 Mr Tinson, without further protest, " and this 
 bundle contains the various share certificates. 
 They are all railway scrip and debentures, except 
 the £17,000 in Canadian 4 per cent." 
 
 " Quite right," said St Evelyn, after a minute 
 examination of the various documents ; " now 
 we will just go into the leases of the Straddle- 
 thorpe farms, as well as the London house pro- 
 perty. I should be glad to know how they are 
 held, when any are likely to fall in, and the 
 chances of improving our letting." 
 
 Another half-hour was devoted to the review- 
 ing of these, the principal sources of the Lezaire 
 revenue. 
 
 '' It seems all quite satisfactory," said the 
 Colonel, whose memorandum-book had been in
 
 IN Lincoln's inn. 45 
 
 constant requisition throughout ; " I only trust 
 I shall discharge my stewardship equally well : 
 my predecessor was evidently a thoroughly good 
 man of business." 
 
 " Mr Prendergast always acted under our 
 advice," said Mr Tinson, somewhat angrily, and 
 with the air of a man claiming honour where 
 honour was due. 
 
 " I shall be equally ready to avail myself of 
 it," replied the Colonel, blandly, " although that 
 will depend naturally upon how far I am satis- 
 fied with your conduct in our affairs." 
 
 " Harvey & Tinson have been solicitors to 
 the Lezaires for generations," observed 4;he 
 lawyer, with rising indignation ; '' our best and 
 most loyal endeavours have always been at the 
 disposal of our clients. You, a comparatively 
 new trustee and a perfect stranger to us, can 
 hardly contemplate the severance of relations 
 that have extended over more than a century." 
 
 " Pardon me, my good sir, it has always been 
 my rule in life to take people as I find them : 
 if you serve us faithfully, well and good ; if
 
 46 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 not, I shall advise my ward and Lady Lezaire 
 to put their business in other hands." 
 
 " I consider such threats most unjustifiable ! " 
 cried Mr Tinson, hotly. 
 
 " Don't lose your temper, my good sir. I am 
 perfectly satisfied with you at present, and 
 hope, for your sake, I shall always continue so. 
 But enough said ; our business is ended for the 
 present, I think, and I will bid you good day." 
 
 *' Insolent, overbearing, hectoring, swagger- 
 ing brute I " These were the epithets which Mr 
 Tinson hurled after his departing client. " To 
 dare to threaten me ; to question our capabili- 
 ties, and hint, rascally interloper, at breaking 
 up the old connection with the firm ! I will 
 be even with him yet ; I will keep my eye on 
 him ; he shall be held strictly to account for his 
 stewardship ; and after all, it can't last more 
 more than half-a-dozen years or so. But the 
 fellow's no fool, that's very clear. He has a 
 very shrewd notion of business, and if he runs 
 straight, will do well by the Lezaire estates. 
 But does he mean to run straight ? I wonder 
 what his next move will be."
 
 47 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 LADY LEZAIRE GIVES WAY. 
 
 Colonel St Evelyn walked back from Lincoln's 
 Inn Fields to liis club, where he lunched with 
 good appetite and well. They were proud of 
 their mid-day buffet at the " Battle-axe," and 
 its members declared it to be the best luncheon 
 club in London. St Evelyn, who had a sharp 
 eye to the cuisine, knew what to choose, and 
 the truite au bleu, the chaud froid of pheasant, 
 and the cunningly prepared Russian salad, 
 washed down by an imperial pint of sound 
 Chambertin, fortified him admirably for the 
 next job before him. 
 
 Lighting a full-flavoured Reina, he set out 
 westward, walking slowly and thoughtfully to 
 Connaught Place.
 
 48 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 "Her ladyship at home?" he asked the 
 butler — an aged retainer, who sniffed a new 
 master already, and was most obsequious to the 
 coming king. 
 
 " No, Colonel. She 'ave gone with Sir Carys- 
 fort to give the dogs a run in the Park. But 
 Miss Eachel's in the boodwarr." 
 
 St Evelyn took the flight of stairs to the half 
 landing in three steps, and the next minute had 
 his little lady-love in his arms. 
 
 " Oh, Ferdy, how you startled me ! it's far 
 too bad" — but there was no ill-temper in the 
 blithe young voice — "no, really, you mustn't 
 
 again." 
 
 " I have such good news, my pretty bird. I 
 must show my delight," and he kissed her again 
 and again. 
 
 "But now, Ferdy, be reasonable, do. Tell 
 me exactly what has happened. Sit down, 
 there : yes, there " — she insisted on his taking 
 a seat by the fire, while she kept on a sofa far 
 
 away. 
 
 "Well, I have seen Mr Tinson to-day, and
 
 LADY LEZAIRE GIVES WAY. 49 
 
 signed the deeds. So has Lady Lezaire, and, 
 now the whole thing is settled and finished, 
 there is no reason why I should not speak to 
 her about — you know." 
 
 " When shall you do it, Ferdy ? Not to-day ? 
 I feel so frightened. Suppose mamma should 
 say No." 
 
 ^' She can't ; I mean it won't much matter if 
 she does." 
 
 " It would make me miserable not to have 
 her consent. I could not go against her, Ferdy, 
 never." 
 
 " But if she is obstinate — mammas have been 
 so before now. What if she should object to 
 me, should decline altogether to entertain my 
 suit ? Would you too send me away ? " 
 
 Eachel hung her head. 
 
 " I could not bear to part with you, Fer- 
 dinand, not for ever," she said at length, in a^ 
 low sweet voice. 
 
 " My pet ! you will never give me up, I feel 
 sure — my sweetest, best-beloved child ! What 
 have I done to deserve the priceless treasure of 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 50 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 your love ? " cried St Evelyn, in tones that 
 were rather theatrical, perhaps, but which con- 
 veyed no sense of their insincerity to her. 
 
 "Yes, Ferdinand, you may trust me indeed. 
 I shall always be constant and true. I have 
 given you my whole heart." 
 
 " Bless you, bless you for these dear words ! " 
 St Evelyn would no longer be denied, but 
 crossed quickly to the sofa, where he again 
 clasped her to his arms. 
 
 Sad that there should be an abrupt ter- 
 mination to so pretty a scene, but a harsh 
 hoarse voice now fell suddenly upon their 
 surprised ears. It was Lady Lezaire's : she 
 had entered the room unobserved. 
 
 " What is the meaning of this ? " she hissed 
 out, almost beside herself. Eage, disappoint- 
 ment, wounded vanity, combined to make Lady 
 Lezaire very terrible just then. 
 
 " It means that Miss Rachel Lezaire has 
 promised to become my wife," said St Evelyn, 
 in a cold, hard, determined tone. 
 
 " Never ! It shall never be I " cried Lady
 
 LADY LEZAIRE GIVES WAY. 51 
 
 Lezaire, now livid with passion. " But I will 
 speak to you directly. As for you, shameless 
 minx, go to your room this instant, and stay 
 there. Do not presume, do not clare to show 
 yourself till I send for you. Go, miss, go ! " 
 
 She turned then upon St Evelyn. 
 
 " And you — you call yourself a gentleman. 
 False, perjured, deceitful villain ! is it thus you 
 repay my kindness, my, my " 
 
 " Really, Lady Lezaire, I am utterly at a loss 
 to understand. How have I offended you so 
 grievously ? " asked St Evelyn, with perfect 
 self-possession. 
 
 " Did you not ask me Faugh ! I cannot 
 
 bring myself to utter the words. I cannot 
 express my loathing, my contempt for myself." 
 
 " I am sure you are under some grave mis- 
 apprehension. Lady Lezaire. If I can offer 
 you any reparation, any apology, I am more 
 than ready to do so. But you are mistaken 
 — you are, I assure you." 
 
 " Have you forgotten that evening at Trou- 
 ville, when you gave me to understand that.
 
 52 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 that But no, it is too humiliating ; I will 
 
 not condescend to upbraid you." 
 
 " I repeat, you are altogether mistaken. What 
 I said that evening I remember perfectly every 
 word. But I was referring to Miss Lezaire, to 
 whom even then I was deeply, passionately 
 attached. I would have asked you formally 
 for her hand that night, but you checked me. 
 I do so now." 
 
 " My answer is ready for you : you shall not 
 marry Eachel Lezaire. I will never, never give 
 my consent." 
 
 " Is it needed ? " asked St Evelyn, coolly. 
 
 Lady Lezaire looked at him in astonish- 
 ment. 
 
 "Miss Lezaire is independent of you by her 
 father's will." 
 
 " How do you know that ? " asked Lady 
 Lezaire, quickly. 
 
 " I had the will in my hands an hour or two 
 ago at Mr Tinson's." 
 
 " I had forgotten, weak fool that I was to 
 put you in that position ; but it shall be undone.
 
 LADY LEZAIRE GIVES WAY. 53 
 
 I will not permit you to continue as Carysfort's 
 guardian : my confidence in you is gone." 
 
 * ' I have no desire to occupy that position if I 
 am no longer acceptable to you. I will give up 
 the guardianship at once, but I will not sur- 
 render my claim to Miss Lezaire : we understand 
 each other, and are both of one mind on this 
 point." 
 
 "She is a silly foolish girl whom you have 
 bewitched and beguiled. But she shall know 
 you at your true worth before the day is out, 
 and shall send you about your business her- 
 self." 
 
 " I will take a refusal from no other lip» but 
 hers. I have no fears, Lady Lezaire ; Eachel is 
 as true as steel." 
 
 " She does not know her own mind yet." 
 
 " Nor you mine. I am resolved, firmly re- 
 solved, to make her my wife, and what I say 
 I'll do ; you can't turn me aside from my pur- 
 pose, nor, I think, will you succeed in depriving 
 me of Kachel's affections : we can wait " 
 
 *'Can you! Not long then: why, already
 
 64 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 you are old enough to be her father," inter- 
 rupted Lady Lezaire, with a bitter laugh. 
 
 " I may remind you of the old proverb, re- 
 plied the Colonel, imperturbably ; *'a man, you 
 know, is as old as he feels, a woman as old as 
 she looks : and believe me, dear Lady Lezaire, 
 you might be Eachel's grandmother. Why vex 
 and trouble yourself so ! it only ages people 
 prematurely." 
 
 " I declare, sir, your insolence passes all 
 bounds. It would show better feeling, after what 
 has occurred, if you were to withdraw from this 
 house, in which you are no longer welcome." 
 
 Colonel St Evelyn rose from his chair and 
 held out his hand. 
 
 " Come, Lady Lezaire, be more reasonable. 
 I am grieved, deeply grieved at this misunder- 
 standing, but I do not think I am to blame. 
 Just consider. I was taken with Eachel from 
 the very first, from that day that I stopped her 
 horse in the Park ; then I found that she cared 
 for me a little, and you yourself were always so 
 encouraging and kind."
 
 LADY LEZAIRE GIVES WAY. 55 
 
 " I gave you no encouragement : it is untrue, 
 monstrously untrue ! " 
 
 "You allowed me to be constantly with her, 
 to pay her marked attention " 
 
 " You never did pay her any attention that 
 I saw ; that's what I complain of." 
 
 " You see I am not very demonstrative, Lady 
 Lezaire ; but I was in love in my own quiet 
 way, and then you yourself gave me so many 
 marks of your kindly approval " 
 
 "I? How? In what way?" 
 
 "Did you not offer of your own accord to 
 make me your son's guardian ? An honour 
 quite unsolicited by me ; I only accepted be- 
 cause I thought it was doing you a service, and 
 because I thought your boy liked me." 
 
 He was still standing opposite her as he stated 
 his own case, with an able, masterly kind of 
 advocacy that was having its effect. 
 
 "Come, Lady Lezaire," he repeated, "let us 
 be friends ; won't you give me your hand ? " 
 
 " You have behaved very badly to me, Colonel 
 St Evelyn, that you must be ready to allow : I
 
 56 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 cannot forgive and forget in a moment, nor 
 shall I ever recover my confidence in you." 
 
 There was less acrimony in her tone, although 
 she still seemed obdurate and angry. 
 
 "I am ready to make all the amende in my 
 power. You shall find in me a most attached 
 and devoted friend: I will labour strenuously 
 in your son's interests, and protect them as my 
 own. As for Eachel, her happiness shall be my 
 first care ; mine, I assure you, is wrapped up in 
 this match. I am no longer in my first youth, 
 and I can never love another girl in the same 
 way. Do not, I implore you, refuse me her 
 hand." 
 
 " I can't turn round all in a moment : it has 
 been so sudden, such a surprise, I am so bit- 
 terly dis -" disappointed she would have said, 
 
 but the admission was too bitter for her amour 
 propre — "so disgusted," she went on, "at the 
 deceit, the secrecy, that I hardly know what 
 to say." 
 
 But St Evelyn took his leave in a sanguine 
 state of mind ; he flattered himself that Lady
 
 LADY LEZAIRE GIVES WAY. 57 
 
 Lezaire's bitter opposition was overcome, and 
 that with a little persistence he would win 
 Eachel's hand with Lady Lezaire's full ap- 
 proval, and without sacrificing his new position 
 as guardian of her son. 
 
 So it came to pass : Lady Lezaire held out 
 obstinately for a week or two longer, but she 
 yielded at length to St Evelyn's unwearied 
 attacks, and Eachel's pathetic entreaties, al- 
 though the latter she never entirely forgave. 
 She was not a little influenced in her decision 
 by the fear of Mr Tinson's ridicule, who would 
 have shrewdly guessed the reason had St 
 Evelyn's appointment as guardian been .can- 
 celled. They were married that autumn, and 
 Mr Tinson apologised for his suspicions when 
 he found that it was Eachel and not her mother 
 he was in eagerness to marry : nor could he 
 either deny that St Evelyn had behaved well, 
 for the Colonel had declined to have anything 
 to say to settlements, and declared that every 
 penny of Eachel's money should be absolutely 
 tied up on herself.
 
 58 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 The marriage came off without unnecessary 
 delay, from Connaught Place, and the happy 
 couple went abroad for a short honeymoon, 
 intending to return and spend the rest of the 
 winter at the Hall.
 
 59 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ARRIVALS AT THE HALL. 
 
 Lady Lezaire had several letters from Eacliel, 
 and was kept well informed of the movements 
 of the newly married couple. No precise in- 
 vitation had been issued to the St Evelyns, 
 but it was understood that directly they re- 
 turned to England they were to come down 
 on a long visit to the Hall. 
 
 Their arrival was heralded by the appearance 
 of Gibbings, the Colonel's man, who brought 
 down the impedimenta: heavy baggage, guns, 
 dogs, and horses. Of the latter there was a 
 string. The Colonel was a hard rider when 
 he got the chance, and the first use he had 
 made of the funds marriage had put at his
 
 60 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 disposal was the purchase of four sound ser- 
 viceable animals, full of bone and sinew, well 
 calculated to carry him forward with the 
 Thorpeshire Hunt. 
 
 The Lezaire coachman, a grey-haired, cross- 
 grained servitor, who had long been master of 
 the horse in the limited establishment kept up 
 by Lady Lezaire after her husband's death, sent 
 in his duty and begged her ladyship's com- 
 mands with regard to the Colonel's stud. 
 
 " Where be I to put 'em, my lady ? " he 
 asked testily. He had found Gibbings a little 
 too free and easy — too ready to make himself 
 at home, and take possession of the best 
 quarters. 
 
 " Surely there's room enough. We've only 
 got the carriage -horses, and the ponies, and 
 Sir Carysfort's cob." 
 
 " I thoug:ht of the six - stall stable in the 
 
 clock-yard " the oldest, darkest, and least 
 
 satisfactory part of the Lezaire stables. 
 
 " Very well ; that will give two stalls to 
 spare."
 
 ARRIVALS AT THE HALL. 61 
 
 " But the Colonel's man, he beant over well 
 pleased. He says that the hunters cost money, 
 and that they ought to be in loose-boxes, and 
 he wants the hunting stable." 
 
 This was a spacious addition made by Sir 
 Percy Lezaire, when twenty years earlier he 
 had hunted the Thorpe hounds. 
 
 " The Colonel's man will have to be satisfied 
 with the accommodation provided," replied Lady 
 Lezaire, angrily. 
 
 " Be the Colonel's horses likely to stand here 
 long, my lady ? " 
 
 " I cannot say : why do you ask ? " 
 
 "Becos the six-stall stable's good enough 
 for a few weeks ; I should not like to keep 
 valuable horses there all the winter." 
 
 " They'll not be here so long as that, Peters. 
 Let them go into the six-stall stable. Those 
 are my orders, tell the Colonel's man." 
 
 The coachman disposed of, the keeper came 
 to know what was to be done with the Colonel's 
 dogs. Three of them ; they would disarrange 
 the kennels. Sir Carysfort's setter would
 
 62 BY HOOK OR CEOOK. 
 
 have to turn out. And, by the way, was it 
 likely any of the coverts would be shot over 
 the next week or two ? The Colonel's man 
 had sent two breech - loaders into the gun- 
 room, and had talked of a battue. 
 
 Lady Lezaire dismissed the keeper with a 
 few brief words. Anger was in her heart 
 against her son-in-law. 
 
 "He wants to take entire possession of the 
 Hall, I think. He quite forgets he is only 
 my son's and my guest." 
 
 But Lady Lezaire had not done with the St 
 Evelyns. 
 
 Mrs Leleu was the next to remind her of 
 the importance of the expected visitors. She 
 wished for instructions as to the rooms she 
 should give the St Evelyns. 
 
 " The blue suite in the south wing, I sup- 
 pose ? " suggested the housekeeper. 
 
 " Certainly not," said Lady Lezaire. " Why 
 should they have the best rooms in the Hall ? " 
 
 " I only thought that as it was a special occa- 
 sion " the housekeeper explained.
 
 ARRIVALS AT THE HALL. 63 
 
 " There is nothing special about it. I don't 
 see why my daughter should not go back to her 
 own room ; but I suppose that would hardly 
 do now that she is married." 
 
 " Shall I get the pink-and-white room ready 
 then, my lady ? the windows look into the rose- 
 garden, and the aspect is south-west." 
 
 " No ; let them have the tapestry room. 
 There is a dressing-room attached to it, and it 
 is close to the back-stairs leading to the gun- 
 room, — that will probably suit Colonel St 
 Evelyn best." 
 
 The happy couple arrived as evening was 
 drawing in. They were shown straight . into 
 the library, which was generally used at the 
 Hall as a cosy snuggery in preference to the 
 great drawing-rooms, and here Lady Lezaire 
 received them with as much warmth as she 
 could muster. She kissed her daughter, and 
 gave her hand to her son-in-law, but spoke no 
 cordial words of welcome. 
 
 "Will you have tea at once, Eachel, or 
 would you like to go to your room ? "
 
 64 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 *'I think I should like to go to my room 
 first. Where have you put us ? " 
 
 "The tapestry room would, I thought, be 
 most convenient." 
 
 Eachel's face fell rather, but all she said 
 was, " I suppose Bertram " (this was her maid) 
 " will be there with the things by this time. 
 Come up, Ferdinand, by-and-by ! " 
 
 " All right, my love," replied her gallant 
 husband ; " I should like first to see after the 
 nags. I suppose my man has arrived ? " 
 This was to Lady Lezaire. 
 
 " Certainly ; he came down yesterday with 
 four horses and a whole pack of dogs." 
 
 *' Gibbings is a capital chap," said the Colonel, 
 laughing pleasantly, and without seeming to 
 notice any arriere pensee in Lady Lezaire's 
 tone. " I suppose I shall easily find the 
 stables ? " 
 
 " One of the men will show you if you ring," 
 said Lady Lezaire ; and with that Colonel St 
 Evelyn took himself ofi*. 
 
 "Ah! here you are," said a fresh voice
 
 ARRIVALS AT THE HALL. 65 
 
 cheerily, as St Evelyn passed out into the 
 courtyard. " I'm jolly glad to see you. How 
 is Eachel ? " 
 
 It was the young baronet, who was as usual 
 loafing about the offices and the stable-yard. 
 
 Colonel St Evelyn greeted him warmly. 
 
 *' Carysfort, my boy, how goes it ? Well met. 
 Come along and see my horses. Do you know 
 where they are put up ? " 
 
 " Don't I just ? I say, Colonel, it's a beastly 
 shame, — they have given your horses the six- 
 stall stable. Why, it's as damp as ditch-water, 
 and a horse can't lie down in any of the 
 stalls." » 
 
 " Are you so pressed for room ? " 
 
 " Room ? There are not half-a-dozen horses 
 in the whole place ! " 
 
 By this time they had reached the stables, 
 where Gribbings was in waiting. 
 
 " Halloa, Gibbings ! is this the best you could 
 do for us ? " 
 
 " It wasn't my fault, sir. Peters, the coach- 
 man, said he had my lady's orders that they 
 
 VOL. I. ■ E
 
 66 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 were to come here. I told him we should want 
 at least two loose-boxes." 
 
 " Where is Peters ? Send him here at once." 
 
 The cross-grained, surly old coachman came 
 haltingly, but the first sound of the Colonel's 
 voice made him jump. 
 
 " Show me round the stables, will you ? I 
 am not going to have my horses killed if I 
 can help it. Get a lantern, or have the place 
 lit up." 
 
 St Evelyn fixed at once, with unerring 
 quickness, upon the hunting stable. 
 
 "What horses stand here generally?" he 
 asked sharply. 
 
 " It was built for Sir Percy's hunters." 
 
 " And what is it used for now ? What horses 
 stand here, I ask you ? Come, look sharp ! " 
 
 "There beant none just at this moment, 
 but " 
 
 " There will be in less than half an hour. 
 Call some of the helpers, Gibbings, and bring 
 my lot over here. I will come and see them 
 bedded down myself by-and-by."
 
 ARRIVALS AT THE HALL. 67 
 
 " I'm very glad you did that, Colonel," said 
 Carysfort. " Peters is a cross-grained old beast ; 
 he thinks the whole place belongs to him, and 
 mother always gives way." 
 
 " Of course it was all a mistake ; but you see, 
 Carysfort, I have paid a good bit of money for 
 those nags, so Fm bound to look after them." 
 
 St Evelyn now went up-stairs to rejoin his 
 wife, and found there had been another mistake, 
 to call it by no stronger name. Mrs St Evelyn 
 was having a warm discussion with the house- 
 keeper when the Colonel came in, and he was 
 surprised to find his gentle little wife speaking 
 in so determined a fashion. ♦ 
 
 " You know, Mrs Leleu, I have always ha- 
 ted this room. I had rather have gone any- 
 where. It is so dark, and it looks into the 
 courtyard." 
 
 "My lady chose it herself; it is no fault of 
 mine, Mrs St Evelyn." 
 
 " What's wrong, my love ? " asked the Colonel. 
 
 ^'Oh, nothing; only I do so hate this room. 
 Mother has forgotten, I think."
 
 68 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 "We'll arrange that by-and-by, — any place 
 will do for to-night." 
 
 "But you might have reminded her, Mrs 
 Leleu," went on Eachel, sticking to her point. 
 " I am really very seriously put out ! " 
 
 *' There, there," said the Colonel, soothing 
 his wife, " never mind now ; we'll soon put 
 this right." 
 
 " I assure you it was not my fault," repeated 
 the housekeeper, and she left the room. 
 
 A very civil-spoken, plausible sort of person, 
 but with rather a fierce look on her sallow, 
 still handsome face, and in her large, dark- 
 brown eyes, a suspicion of temper easily 
 aroused. 
 
 " Your mother does not appear to be partic- 
 ularly anxious to make us at home, my dear." 
 
 " Oh, don't say that, Ferdinand ; she is not 
 really unkind, but she has 'never quite forgiven 
 you, I think." 
 
 There were no secrets between husband and 
 wife. 
 
 " I suppose that's it, but she might have
 
 ARRIVALS AT THE HALL. 69 
 
 been pleasanter on our first day at the Hall. 
 Wliy, site ordered my horses into a tumble- 
 down place not fit for cows ! But I soon made 
 a change." 
 
 " Do you mean that you countermanded any- 
 thing that mother had arranged ? " 
 
 " Yes, my dear, that is what I mean ; and to- 
 morrow^, if you will choose the rooms you prefer, 
 I daresay your mother will give you them." 
 
 There was a set look about St Evelyn's eyes 
 as he made this remark, which showed that he 
 intended to try conclusions with Lady Lezaire.
 
 70 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 A FIRST PASSAGE OF AEMS. 
 
 There was no discussion or contest between 
 Lady Lezaire and Colonel St Evelyn till next 
 morning. The first difference of opinion arose 
 concerning Carysfort, and the future disposal of 
 his time. 
 
 The Colonel had been studying the county 
 map, and had discovered that the next meet 
 of the Thorpe hounds was within very easy 
 reach of the Hall. 
 
 " Would you like to go to Gerard's Cross ? " 
 (the meet) he asked Carysfort. 
 
 " Wouldn't I rather ? " cried the boy, looking 
 doubtfully at his mother. 
 
 " Dear Carysfort has never hunted," said Lady
 
 A FIRST PASSAGE OF ARMS. 71 
 
 Lezaire, in a cold, forbidding manner. " The 
 risks are so great, that I have never liked to 
 trust him." 
 
 *'But he must begin some day," expostulated 
 St Evelyn ; **you cannot allow him to grow up 
 without practice in the habits and customs of 
 an English country gentleman." 
 
 " I have followed the hounds scores of times," 
 cried Carysfort, "but only on foot with Hu- 
 bert." 
 
 " Very infra dig. for the son of a M. F. H. 
 But I suppose you can stick on a horse ? " 
 
 ^' Can't I just ? " replied the boy. 
 
 " And have you jumped a fence ? " • 
 
 Carysfort looked queerly at his mother before 
 he replied — 
 
 "Dozens of times: my cob is ^A 1' at tim- 
 ber." 
 
 " He won't do for Gerard's Cross, though ; 
 you shall ride one of my lot. Sennacherib will 
 carry you well ; he is easy to steer, and has a 
 light mouth." 
 
 " Carysfort shall not ride to hounds till he
 
 72 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 is eighteen," said Lady Lezaire, decisively. " I 
 absolutely forbid it." 
 
 *' Please, don't say that. Lady Lezaire," the 
 Colonel pleaded. " It will be too late for him 
 then to get confidence or a proper seat. I will 
 take the greatest care of him." 
 
 " Oh yes, mother, I must go. You won't be 
 so cruel. I'm big enough now. Why, it's as 
 bad as about the shooting." 
 
 St Evelyn looked as if he did not understand. 
 
 " Mother did not like Carysfort using fire- 
 arms," explained Mrs St Evelyn. 
 
 "So she makes me have a safety gun — a 
 thing with a false hammer, which you have to 
 put in before you fire. When a bird gets up 
 I have to fumble in my waistcoat-pocket, or ask 
 Hubert or the keeper for the hammer, and when 
 I get it I have lost my shot." 
 
 "You might as well try putting salt on a 
 bird's tail," said St Evelyn, laughing heartily. 
 " But all that can be easily mended." 
 
 " Never with my consent," put in Lady 
 Lezaire, with increased severity. " I hate your
 
 A FIRST PASSAGE OF ARMS. 73 
 
 having anything to do with guns. They are 
 always going off." 
 
 " Which I might suggest is what they are 
 intended for," said the Colonel. 
 
 " I mean, going off unexpectedly. We hear 
 constantly of such terrible accidents." 
 
 " Due to want of care, but more still to want 
 of knowledge and experience. I am sure the 
 very way to let Carysfort shoot himself " 
 
 " Heaven forbid ! " cried the anxious mother. 
 
 " or some one else, is to give him no 
 
 chance of handling firearms. He should get 
 accustomed to them at once." 
 
 " I have my own views as to the educa1:ion 
 of my son," said Lady Lezaire stiffly, intending 
 to end the discussion — " and I want no one to 
 give me advice or teach me my duty." 
 
 '* You don't know boys, my dear Lady Lezaire, 
 so well as I do." St Evelyn laughed again, and 
 good-humouredly. " I'm ready to back my plan 
 against yours any day." 
 
 Lady Lezaire gave him a look of sour dis- 
 pleasure, but made no reply.
 
 74 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 " Come, Carysfort, and look at tlie nags. 
 You shall try Sennacherib, if you like, round 
 the yard." 
 
 " You are a brick, Colonel — I like you," cried 
 Carysfort ; " and we'll have a talk with the 
 keeper about the coverts. We might have a 
 little pot-hunting, you and I, this afternoon." 
 
 " Carysfort, Mr Lewisham " (a neighbouring 
 curate, who came daily to perform the thankless 
 and unprofitable task of teaching the young 
 baronet) ''will be here in half an hour," said 
 Lady Lezaire. " Have you prepared for him ? " 
 
 But Carysfort was already out of earshot, 
 bounding round St Evelyn like a dog just let 
 loose from his chain. 
 
 They went out into the great courtyard, 
 which was to the right of the drive and entrance 
 to the Hall, and passed through this on their 
 way to the stable -yards beyond. Suddenly 
 Carysfort left St Evelyn's side, and ran off to 
 slip his arm familiarly into that of another lad 
 who was walking ahead of them. 
 
 St Evelyn came up with the two boys at the
 
 A FIRST PASSAGE OF ARMS. 75 
 
 doorway of the hunting stable. " This is Hu- 
 bert," said Carysfort, by way of introduction. 
 
 " Oh ! " remarked St Evelyn, carelessly, but 
 he bent his eyes keenly upon the new-comer. 
 
 A slouching, slipshod youth, older probably 
 than he looked : there was a strong line of 
 black down upon his upper lip, indicating that 
 he might be three- or four-and-twenty, even 
 more, but his manner and appearance were 
 those of sixteen. Eound shoulders took from 
 his height, which was about the medium ; very 
 small sharp features gave a childish look to 
 a naturally small face. Straight, wiry-looking 
 black hair straggled over a low proj editing 
 forehead, under which gleamed two black, shifty, 
 restless little eyes, generally cast down, for their 
 owner had a strong objection to look you in the 
 face. His whole aspect — his loose, undecided 
 gait, his shy, shrinking manner, his weak and 
 constantly averted face, and his sullen and 
 abrupt speech — was decidedly unprepossessing. 
 
 " Oh ! " repeated St Evelyn, " and what is 
 Hubert's other name ? "
 
 76 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 " Hubert Podifat is my name," said the 
 youtli reluctantly, as thougli the admission was 
 likely to do him harm. 
 
 "And pray, what do you do with yourself 
 by daylight ? " went on the Colonel. 
 
 Hubert Podifat hung his head, and looked 
 stupidly stolid, as though he did not understand 
 the question. 
 
 " Hubert is my particular friend," said Carys- 
 fort, answering for him. '*We go about to- 
 gether, fishing, shooting, hunting, ratting, — 
 any larks. Hubert's up to everything, I can 
 tell you." 
 
 "Is he ? " said the Colonel, with rather a 
 sneer in his tone ; " but that will do for Master 
 Hubert. Come, Carysfort, and look at the 
 horses. We will have a saddle put on Sen- 
 nacherib, and then you can try him." 
 
 Hubert Podifat slunk away, but he remained 
 in Ijie far corner of the yard while Carysfort 
 and Colonel St Evelyn were together, and the 
 moment St Evelyn turned to go back to the
 
 A FIRST PASSAGE OF ARMS. 77 
 
 house, he rejoined Carysfort with the eagerness 
 of an inseparable friend. 
 
 The Colonel had been recalled by a message 
 to the effect that Lady Lezaire wished to speak 
 to him. He found her in the library with a 
 flushed face. There was decided anger in her 
 tone when she began. "Can it be possible, 
 Colonel St Evelyn, that what Peters my coach- 
 man tells me is true?" she said, — "that you 
 have taken upon yourself to alter arrangements 
 I had made, and moved your horses into other 
 stables ? " 
 
 ''It is perfectly true," replied St Evelyn, 
 calmly. » 
 
 " Then may I ask how you dared " 
 
 St Evelyn interrupted her. 
 
 '' One moment, Lady Lezaire," said he. " It is 
 perhaps as well we should have an explanation. 
 I should like to ask you at once whether you 
 deliberately wished to put an affront upon me." 
 
 '' I do not understand you." 
 
 " Has not your treatment of us since we
 
 78 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 arrived been an affront — or worse? We 
 come here as your guests, — your own daughter, 
 and I, your son's guardian as well as your son- 
 in-law, — and what do we find? Although the 
 Hall is absolutely empty, you lodge us in the 
 worst rooms in the house " 
 
 "That is not the case," interrupted Lady 
 Lezaire, hotly. " Eachel has been making 
 mischief." 
 
 "Every one knows that the tapestry room, 
 where you put us, is only used when the house 
 is quite full ; and you are well aware. Lady 
 Lezaire, that the apartment is especially dis- 
 tasteful to my wife." 
 
 '' I am mistress here, and I will put my 
 guests where I choose," said Lady Lezaire. 
 
 " Quite so ; but that does not remove the 
 affront. Then as regards the stabling: there 
 are no end of vacant stalls, — I saw them with 
 my own eyes this morning, — yet you would 
 have allowed my horses to run all sorts of risks 
 in the very worst, the dampest, the darkest, and 
 most unwholesome stable at the Hall."
 
 A FIRST PASSAGE OF ARMS. 79 
 
 "I never asked you to bring your horses 
 down here." 
 
 " Pardon me ! It was understood that I was 
 to hunt, and I should never have presumed to 
 look for mounts in your stables." 
 
 ''You have taken a great liberty, I think, 
 and I must insist that you will not again in- 
 terfere with any orders I may give," said Lady 
 Lezaire, hoping that the argument might now 
 end. But St Evelyn had more to say. 
 
 " I should not dream of setting up my 
 authority against yours, but I repeat that as 
 Carysfort's guardiai* I am entitled to more 
 consideration than I have received. It is xery 
 unpleasant to me to have to assert myself, but 
 I feel that I am bound to do so if I am to take 
 my proper place. I cannot look after your 
 son's interests if I am to be treated as a mere 
 cipher. You insist — so must I." 
 
 " What do you insist on ? " asked Lady Lez- 
 aire, a little cowed by his masterful tone. 
 
 " On not being humiliated and made to ap- 
 pear small before all the servants and retainers.
 
 80 BY HOOK OE CROOK. 
 
 I have not come down here as a poor relation, 
 to pick up the crumbs and be satisfied with 
 any small scraps of civility that you may throw 
 to me. I claim to be of some consequence at the 
 Hall, and I repeat I must insist upon being so 
 treated." 
 
 '' It is quite a mistake to suppose that I wish 
 to affront you," said Lady Lezaire, now quite 
 crestfallen. " I am quite ready, I assure you, 
 to do anything in my power to make your 
 stay pleasant." 
 
 " Thank you extremely. Lady Lezaire. I 
 will take you at your word. Perhaps you will 
 tell the housekeeper to move us into the blue 
 suite in the south wing : as to my horses, I 
 have seen to them already." 
 
 Thus, in her first engagement with her son's 
 guardian. Lady Lezaire had tried to stand to 
 her guns, but had been utterly worsted in the 
 fight.
 
 81 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 Hubert's paeentage. 
 
 Colonel St Evelyn was well received in the 
 county. He came under the sponsorship, so to 
 speak, of the Lezaires — a family long settled and 
 much esteemed in Thorpeshire. Among the 
 neighbouring magnates, too, were a few whom 
 St Evelyn had met in London — either casual 
 acquaintances of the racecourse, or fellow- 
 members of his club, the " Battle-axe and Ban- 
 ner," with whom he was on something more 
 than nodding terms. He got a good character 
 in the county from the latter as a shrewd, 
 sensible man of business, and this gained him 
 the goodwill of the Lord Lieutenant, who at 
 once placed him on the Commission of the 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 82 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 Peace. St Evelyn lost no time in appearing 
 at sessions, and sat regularly on the bench ; 
 he freely offered himself for committees on 
 jails, highways, lunatic asylums, anything and 
 everything in which he might be useful, and 
 his services were gladly accepted. He was 
 soon known and appreciated as an excellent 
 county magistrate, practical, fairly well inform- 
 ed, and never afraid of hard work. 
 
 The popularity he speedily won was, however, 
 more particularly traceable to his thoroughly 
 sportsmanlike character. One of his first acts 
 on arrival at the Hall was the transmission of 
 a substantial cheque to the Master as his sub- 
 scription to the hounds. This was followed by 
 his appearance in the hunting field, admirably 
 mounted and turned out, at the very first meet 
 after he came down ; and from that time he 
 rode well to the front on every possible occasion. 
 
 They liked this in the county. The Thorpe 
 hounds were a little too near to town, and the 
 neighbourhood was apt to be inundated by 
 Londoners, who were often keener and better
 
 Hubert's parentage. 83 
 
 mounted than members of the hunt. Thus 
 any one who, like St Evelyn, was ready to 
 maintain the sporting reputation of the res- 
 ident gentry, was sure to be approved of. 
 
 Again, St Evelyn, who by degrees had estab- 
 lished an ascendancy over Lady Lezaire which 
 she was powerless to resist, had arranged 
 several shooting-parties in the young baronet's 
 name, at which the neighbouring squires were 
 made free of the Straddlethorpe coverts in a 
 liberal fashion that had long been unknown. 
 
 St Evelyn was generally voted a good sort of 
 chap, a great improvement upon Sir Carysfort's 
 last guardian, and a decided acquisition to the 
 county. 
 
 Hospitalities were freely exchanged between 
 Straddlethorpe and the houses around. The 
 newly married couple were invited everywhere, 
 generally to dine and sleep, after the fashion 
 of country neighbourhoods, where it is a poor 
 compliment to drag guests fifteen miles or more 
 by cross-country roads to eat no better dinner 
 than they could get at home.
 
 84 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 On the other hand, Lady Lezaire was pre- 
 vailed upon — although usually docile, she still 
 resisted St Evelyn's influence at times — to en- 
 tertain in her turn. The Straddlethorpe guest- 
 chambers were once more refilled, and the best 
 wine in the cellar — the '59 Margaux and the 
 '34 port, so highly esteemed by local connois- 
 seurs — was freely displayed after dinner. 
 
 Lady Lezaire was not always at great pains 
 to be gracious, but the people who came to the 
 house were mostly friends of long standing, and 
 she could not be rude to them, however much 
 she disliked the person who really brought 
 them there. After all. Colonel St Evelyn, a 
 self-possessed, experienced man of the world, 
 was not likely to remain in the background, and 
 the doing of the honours fell chiefly on him. 
 
 One day there was a large dinner-party at 
 the Hall. The hounds had drawn blank that 
 afternoon at no great distance from Straddle- 
 thorpe, and two or three men who were to 
 stay at the Hall had ridden over there with St 
 Evelyn. Young Sir Carysfort was with them.
 
 hubekt's parentage. 85 
 
 On arriving at the stables, he had jumped off 
 his horse and had run quickly across to where 
 Hubert Podifat was standing, waiting for him, 
 as it seemed. The boy slipped his arm into 
 that of his friend, and they went off together 
 in close confabulation. 
 
 "Who's that chap?" asked old Mr Etherly 
 of Etherly — a hard -riding, red -faced country 
 squire, who had lived all his life in the Thorpe- 
 shire country. 
 
 " A fellow called Hubert Podifat, or some 
 such name," replied the Colonel. " I know 
 nothing about him, except that he is far too 
 thick with Carysfort Lezaire to please me."» 
 
 *'He's still hanmng about here, then? How 
 strange ! " 
 
 " Who is he ? Where does he come from ? 
 Do you know him ? " 
 
 " Of course. Don't you ? It was a great 
 mistake, I always said, allowing him to run 
 about the Hall. But Lezaire — Sir Percy, I 
 mean, — the last baronet, you know — always 
 took his own way."
 
 86 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 " But, my dear Mr Etherly, you haven't told 
 me who this Hubert Podifat is." 
 
 "That'll keep, Colonel. To-night, in the 
 smoking-room, you shall hear. This place is 
 too public." 
 
 Late that night, when old Mr Etherly had at 
 least one bottle of '34 port under his belt, and 
 was enveloped in the smoke of a full-flavoured 
 " partaga," St Evelyn reminded him of his 
 promise. 
 
 "Hubert Podifat," said Mr Etherly, rolling 
 his cigar round in his mouth, "is the putative 
 son of Podifat, who was under-keeper here in 
 Sir Percy's time." 
 
 " Putative ? Who was his real father, then ? " 
 
 " No one knows for certain. But I never had 
 the smallest doubt that the honour belonged to 
 Sir Percy Lezaire." 
 
 " Can it be possible ! And the mother ? " 
 
 " There was the mystery. No one ever saw 
 her, or heard of her even. Sir Percy must 
 have kept his liaison uncommonly close. When 
 Podifat came to live at Straddlethorpe — he had.
 
 Hubert's parentage. 87 
 
 the North Lodge — lie was called a widower. 
 He certainly brought no wife with him — only 
 this one brat of a boy." 
 
 ^'Hubert?" 
 
 *' Precisely. He was a rank blackguard, was 
 Podifat, who had knocked up and down the 
 world a great deal in his time — in America, 
 Canada, everywhere — an idle, drunken, good- 
 for-nothing rogue, who lounged in the alehouse 
 all day, and was the secret ally of poachers by 
 night. It was a wonder that Sir Percy put up 
 with him for an hour. That was what raised 
 suspicions, in fact." 
 
 "It was thought that the fellow had. some 
 hold over Sir Percy, I suppose ? " 
 
 "Just so. You see Straddlethorpe in those 
 days was as well managed a place as any in the 
 shires, and Sir Percy would not have tolerated 
 such a disreputable person as Podifat, not for 
 an hour, if he had been able to help himself." 
 
 "But there must have been more reason 
 than that for imputing the boy's parentage to 
 Sir Percy."
 
 88 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 "The notion was first put about, I believe, 
 by the man Podifat. He was a garrulous, 
 gossiping, scandalous scoundrel, and for a long 
 time no one thought much of what he said. 
 But the fellow was so persistent : his story 
 never varied, and, to tell the truth, he spoke so 
 plainly, that people began to think there was 
 something in it." 
 
 " Particularly when taken in connection with 
 Sir Percy's forbearance ? " 
 
 "Exactly. Then something else cropped up 
 to justify the first suspicions. Podifat went 
 utterly to the bad. He was apprehended on a 
 serious charge — night poaching complicated 
 with manslaughter — and he left the country, 
 not entirely of his own accord." 
 
 " As a convict, in fact ? " 
 
 "As a convict : he was last heard of in 
 Western Australia, but that was many years 
 
 j> 
 
 ago. 
 
 " Well ? " 
 
 "The little brat — this Hubert, you know — 
 was deserted, left to shift for himself. They 
 found him half starved, a wretched little object.
 
 Hubert's parentage. 89 
 
 in the empty Lodge, and Sir Percy at once had 
 him taken in at the Hall." 
 
 *' Was Sir Percy married then ? " 
 
 "To be sure, and had been for some years. 
 Eachel — Mrs St Evelyn, I mean — must have 
 been four or five." 
 
 "And what did Lady Lezaire say to the 
 appearance of Hubert ? " 
 
 " Took it in excellent part, so we heard. 
 Talked much of the kindliness, the noble phil- 
 anthropy of Sir Percy, and was quite kind to 
 young Hubert." 
 
 " Do you suppose she knew the real state of 
 the case ? " • 
 
 " People are generally the last to know what 
 interests them most. Anyhow she made no 
 objection. Hubert was taken charge of by the 
 housekeeper " 
 
 " The present woman ? " 
 
 " That I can't say, but I expect not, — it's so 
 many years ago." 
 
 " And so the boy grew up at the Hall ? " 
 
 "He became a kind of tame cat about the 
 house — tolerated, but not much liked — until
 
 90 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 young Carysfort began to grow up. He took 
 an enormous fancy to the fellow, and it was 
 
 never checked. Lady Lezaire " (he paused, 
 
 wondering whether he ought to take St 
 Evelyn's mother-in-law to task) "ought not 
 to have permitted it." 
 
 " I quite agree with you, my dear Mr 
 Etherly. But, on the contrary, she seems 
 rather to have encouraged the intimacy." 
 
 " Hubert Podifat is hardly a proper associ- 
 ate for Sir Carysfort Lezaire," the old squire 
 admitted frankly. 
 
 "I feel that most strongly, and think the 
 thing ought to be stopped." 
 
 "You won't find it easy, I expect." 
 
 " I'll do it, even if Hubert Podifat has to be 
 sent away from the Hall. He is too old to be 
 hanging about here, hand in glove with the 
 head of the Lezaires." 
 
 " That's where you'll find the difficulty. 
 Carysfort wont bear to part with him easily. 
 However, I quite agree with you. Colonel, that 
 the intimacy ought not to continue."
 
 91 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 WHAT CAME OF A FIGHT. 
 
 Colonel St Evelyn thought that by freely 
 offering his companionship to young Carysfort 
 Lezaire, he would keep Hubert Podifat at a 
 distance, and perhaps break the intimacy. But 
 it is seldom that a grown-up man can make 
 himself the close friend and ally of a lad in his 
 teens, and ere long the boy chafed at his 
 guardian's attentions. Carysfort often tried 
 and often succeeded in giving the Colonel the 
 slip, and instead of joining in some previously 
 planned expedition, ran off to join Hubert 
 Podifat, a more congenial associate. 
 
 One day St Evelyn came complaining to his 
 wife of Carysfort's sudden disappearance.
 
 92 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 " We were going over to Theobalds to see 
 the kennels, and lunch with Lord Prudhames. 
 But now, at the last moment, Carysfort is not 
 to be found. It's too aggravating," said the 
 Colonel, savagely. 
 
 " What can have become of him ? " asked 
 Eachel. 
 
 " He has gone off somewhere with that scamp, 
 Hubert Podifat. Gibbings saw them together 
 an hour ago." 
 
 " They have been friends for so long," pleaded 
 Kachel. 
 
 " Hubert is a very bad friend, Fm afraid. 
 Fm sure I've tried to do all I can for Carys- 
 fort. I am always ready to go anywhere, to 
 do anything with him." 
 
 "Boys like some one more their own age. 
 Not that I think you old, dearest," she added, 
 hastily. 
 
 " You have given me the best proof of that, 
 my love, by taking me — at the eleventh hour. 
 But you must admit that Hubert is the worst 
 possible companion for Carysfort."
 
 WHAT CAME OF A FIGHT. 93 
 
 *' Of course ; I have always said so." 
 
 " What I dread is some scandal. Hubert 
 will lead your brother into mischief : they will 
 get into trouble. But I'll find out what they're 
 after to-day ; of that I am determined," and he 
 turned to the door. 
 
 *' Are you going, Ferdinand ? " 
 
 " I must ride over to Theobalds alone. Wc 
 are expected to lunch, you know." 
 
 St Evelyn, when riding, liked to be followed 
 by a groom, and as often as not he took Gib- 
 bings, a humble but long-standing friend. The 
 Colonel, while still on the Lezaire estate, was 
 in the habit of dismounting to examine fences 
 or drains, or to go into cottages and do a little 
 bailiff's work on his own account. Gibbings 
 was with him this day. 
 
 " What's become of Sir Carysfort ? " asked St 
 Evelyn. " Have you any idea ? " 
 
 "They went out Market Eeepham way. 
 Colonel. Up to some game." 
 
 " Have you any idea what ? " 
 
 " I did hear there was to be a fight."
 
 94 BY HOOK OK CROOK. 
 
 " A prize-figlit ? " 
 
 " Yes, Colonel. Some gipsies who have been 
 hanging about these parts have matched one 
 of their people against * Burly Scran/ the 
 brewers man, and it was to be fought out this 
 afternoon behind a low public-house — ' The Case 
 is Altered,' they call it — just outside the town." 
 
 " Do you mean to tell me that Sir Carysfort 
 Lezaire has been taken by this Hubert to such 
 a disreputable affair ? " 
 
 " I am not certain, of course. Colonel ; but 
 that's what they were saying at the Hall." 
 
 Colonel St Evelyn determined to ride into 
 Market Eeepham from Theobalds, and under 
 Gibbing's guidance he reached the public-house 
 between four and five. The fight had come 
 off in a paddock behind the house, and was over 
 
 « 
 
 by the time the Colonel arrived. But most of 
 the patrons of the nearly extinct science of self- 
 defence still lingered in the tap-room. 
 
 Dismounting, and leaving his horse to Gib- 
 bings, St Evelyn walked straight in. A noisy 
 and apparently quarrelsome company sat round
 
 WHAT CAME OF A FIGHT. 95 
 
 the dirty, beer-stained tables, discussing the 
 episodes of the recent encounter, and arguing 
 over another expected event. 
 
 *^ I'd back the young master here," said one 
 rough voice, '*for a pot." 
 
 " Go along wi' you," retorted another; " 'tain't 
 in nature that a slip of a chap like this should 
 stand up with Long Pete." 
 
 " I'm not afraid of half-a-dozen Petes," put in 
 a third voice, which St Evelyn immediately 
 recognised ; " I'll fight him for the pleasure of 
 the thing." 
 
 " You're a good-plucked un," cried several of 
 the roughs. • 
 
 " Put down the stakes and make a match," 
 said a fresh voice — Hubert Podifat's. 
 
 But now St Evelyn, pushing through the 
 crowd, interposed. 
 
 " Carysfort 1 Can it be possible ! You in 
 this den, and in this state ! " 
 
 Lady Lezaire would not have been proud of 
 her son had she seen him now. Carysfort was 
 lounging on a bench, smoking a short clay
 
 96 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 pipe. In front of him was a quart-pot of ale, 
 to which he had been paying close atten- 
 tion, as his flushed cheeks and dazed eyes 
 proved. 
 
 " Fair words, master, fair words," put in the 
 landlord of " The Case is Altered." " My house 
 is as respectable " 
 
 " We will see about that when the time comes 
 for renewing your licence. You don't know me, 
 perhaps ? " 
 
 " It's Colonel Bloke," whispered one of the 
 roughs to a neighbour. St Evelyn was already 
 dreaded on the Thorpeshire bench. 
 
 " Come away from this disreputable place, 
 Carysfort, — it's too disgraceful that you should 
 have been brought here : but those who are 
 responsible shall pay for it." 
 
 This was meant for Hubert, who sat scowl- 
 ing but apprehensive, like an ill-conditioned cur 
 expecting a kick. 
 
 The young baronet got up reluctantly, and, 
 hanging his head, followed his guardian out of 
 the place. Gibbings gave him up his horse.
 
 WHAT CAME OF A FIGHT. 97 
 
 Caiysfort clambered into the saddle with diffi- 
 culty, and St Evelyn led him home. 
 
 Hubert Podifat did not return to the Hall 
 till late in the evening, but he could not escape 
 his punishment. A message came to him 
 through Gibbings, that Colonel St Evelyn 
 wished to speak to him directly he came in ; 
 and Gibbings, to prevent any mistakes, himself 
 escorted the youth to the Colonel's sanctum. 
 
 This was a small room off the entrance-hall, 
 which in Sir Percy's days had been used by the 
 bailiff, but which St Evelyn had now appro- 
 priated. It was called " the Colonel's study," 
 but it was rather a smoking-room and busij^ess 
 room than a library. Books were altogether 
 absent, with the exception of a local directory, 
 two or three ledgers, 'Hutchinson on Dog- 
 breaking,' and ' Youatt on the Horse.' 
 
 Hubert came in with the half reckless, half 
 hang-dog air of a boy about to be birched. 
 The Colonel, who was smoking in an arm-chair 
 by the fire, looked at him fixedly for some 
 
 VOL. I. G .
 
 98 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 minutes without speaking, and without asking 
 him to sit down. 
 
 *' You ought to be properly ashamed of your- 
 self," he said at last. "How dare you take 
 Sir Carysfort Lezaire to that filthy pothouse ? " 
 
 " It was he took me," replied Hubert, sullenly. 
 
 " I don't believe a word of it. It is you 
 who lead, not that silly young fool. But 
 there shall be an end of this : you will prepare 
 to leave the Hall the first thing to-morrow." 
 
 Hubert looked at him stupidly, as though 
 he failed to realise the meaning of his words. 
 
 " You understand ? Pack your traps this 
 very night : to-morrow you march 1 " 
 
 " Where am I to go ? " Hubert asked, with 
 a sulky scowl. He was beginning to under- 
 stand. 
 
 "That's not so easy to settle. You're not 
 fit to earn your living ; but I have considered 
 all that. I will arrange for you to be bound 
 to Coppocks, the land-surveyors in Market 
 Eeepham, and kept until you are through your 
 articles."
 
 WHAT CAME OF A FIGHT. 99 
 
 Hubert made no sign of assent or disap- 
 proval, but stood there looking as though he 
 hated St Evelyn with his whole heart. 
 
 "Well, as you've nothing to say, you can 
 take yourself off. Eemember, to-morrow you 
 leave the Hall." 
 
 Hubert Podifat slunk away to the house- 
 keeper's room, where he found Mrs Leleu. She 
 attacked him at once. 
 
 "This is a pretty time to show yourself! 
 Where have you been all day ? " 
 
 Hubert made no answer, but sat down, 
 brooding and staring into the fire. 
 
 " Haven't you got a tongue in your h^ad ? 
 Where have you been ? Don't you want any 
 supper? It's very late, but you can have 
 something." 
 
 Hubert still sat mute. 
 
 " What's taken the lad ? Are you ill ? In 
 trouble ? What's the matter ? " 
 
 There was more kindliness in Mrs Leleu's 
 tone than might have been expected from her. 
 She seemed to have a certain liking for this
 
 100 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 ill - favoured dependant who occupied such a 
 nondescript position at the Hall. 
 
 *' I am going away," said Hubert, at length. 
 
 " Away ? What ! going to leave the Hall ! " 
 
 Hubert nodded. 
 
 " Impossible ! Of your own accord ? " 
 
 " No ; it's him." 
 
 The pronoun thus used ungrammatically 
 referred to Colonel St Evelyn. The house- 
 keeper quite understood this. Since the 
 Colonel's access to power, he had come to be 
 called simply " he " or " him " by the estab- 
 lishment, like the captain of a ship by his crew. 
 
 " The meddlesome, hectoring, hateful brute ! " 
 cried Mrs Leleu. " But what brought him on 
 the top of you ? " 
 
 Hubert briefly related what had occurred that 
 afternoon. 
 
 *' So you took young master to see a fight? 
 Well ! where's the harm ? If it was good 
 enough for you, it was not too bad for him." 
 
 " The Colonel hates me. He don't want Sir 
 Carysfort and me to be together."
 
 WHAT CAME OF A FIGHT. 101 
 
 " Why shouldn't you be together ? It's 
 natural enough." 
 
 Hubert looked at her a little surprised. 
 
 " How so ? " he asked. 
 
 "You'll know some of these days. Well, 
 what are you going to do ? Are you going to 
 take your orders from him ? " 
 
 ''What else?" 
 
 "You are a poor creature! You have no 
 more spirit than a mouse. If I was in your 
 shoes, I would complain to my lady : I would 
 see what Sir Carysfort had to say. You must 
 show fight, d'ye hear ? " 
 
 " What's the good ? He's far too strong for 
 us. How I hate him, the beast ! " 
 
 " If you won't, I will. I'll have a talk with 
 her ladyship the first thing in the morning. 
 The Colonel shan't have it all his own way here. 
 He may not find it so easy to get round me." 
 
 But Mrs Leleu was herself to have a passage 
 of arms with the Colonel next day, a description 
 of which must be reserved for a fresh chapter.
 
 102 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE COLONEL WOESTED. 
 
 It cannot be said that St Evelyn shirked the 
 responsibilities or duties, as he saw them, of 
 his position as guardian to Sir Carysfort 
 Lezaire. He was ready to use his best energies 
 and give up his whole time, if necessary, in 
 the interests of his ward. Very soon after 
 his arrival at Straddlethorpe, he had seen that 
 the establishment required searching reform, 
 and he had devoted himself con amove to the 
 task. An active, energetic, managing man, 
 with a leaven of administrative capacity, and 
 a strong bias towards interference, he quickly 
 asserted himself, and made his authority felt 
 throuo^hout the Hall.
 
 THE COLONEL WORSTED. 103 
 
 They tried a fall with him — many of the old 
 and reputed faithful servants of the Lezaires — 
 but all were easily and often badly thrown. 
 
 The bailiff resented a too searching inquiry 
 into the disposal of some of the crops : Colonel 
 St Evelyn showed him that he was well up in 
 the qualities of hay, — that he knew to a penny 
 its market price. 
 
 The woodman wanted to give a manifestly 
 cheap bargain to a Market Eeepham timber 
 merchant of some fallen trees : quite unex- 
 pectedly the Colonel called in an expert from 
 the other end of the county, and had an en- 
 tirely new valuation made. • 
 
 Peters, the coachman, was near coming to 
 conspicuous grief. The old man had never 
 forgiven St Evelyn his defiance of my lady's 
 arrangements with regard to the stables, and 
 he was as uncivil always as he dared be to 
 the new power at the Hall. 
 
 " Peters," said St Evelyn suddenly one day, 
 " do you keep a forage-book ? " 
 
 " Never heard tell of such a thing."
 
 104 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 *' You'll have to begin one directly. I must 
 have a record of receipts and issues. And I'll 
 take the buying, when anything is wanted, into 
 my own hands." 
 
 " My lady has trusted me to buy everything 
 these ten years past." 
 
 " I can quite believe it," said the Colonel, 
 drily, "and the consequence is her half-dozen 
 horses have eaten as much as a troop of cavalry. 
 We'll put an end to that." 
 
 "I beant a-going to stop here if I'm not 
 trusted." 
 
 "You can clear out when you please. But 
 we'll have a settlement before you go, my fine 
 fellow — remember that." 
 
 The Colonel looked so ugly and so magis- 
 terial as he said this, that Peters changed his 
 tone. He became the most submissive of 
 coachmen, ready to carry out implicitly any 
 instructions. 
 
 It was the same all through the household, 
 at least so far as the men were concerned. St 
 Evelyn expected more trouble with the women,
 
 THE COLONEL WORSTED. 105 
 
 or more exactly the head of the female depart- 
 ment — for he wisely resolved to govern the other 
 sex through the housekeeper, their responsible 
 chief. 
 
 But before tackling Mrs Leleu, he fortified 
 himself by speaking to Lady Lezaire. 
 
 " I am sure there is waste in the housekeep- 
 ing," he had said. 
 
 " Is that an innuendo levelled against me ? " 
 Lady Lezaire asked, but with less indignation 
 than she would have shown a month or two 
 earlier. She was not so combative nowadays. 
 
 " Of course not," replied the Colonel, blandly. 
 " I mean that your housekeeper is so entirely 
 uncontrolled " 
 
 Lady Lezaire laughed uneasily. This also 
 was a covert insinuation. 
 
 ' ' She takes so much upon herself, you under- 
 stand," went on the Colonel, putting it in 
 another way, "that I think her books ought 
 to be looked into, her expenditure examined." 
 
 "I cannot see the necessity," Lady Lezaire 
 protested. "Mrs Leleu has been here for four
 
 106 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 or five years, and I have never had any fault 
 to find with her." 
 
 " Did she come to you well recommended ? " 
 
 "Naturally. I forget by whom at this 
 moment, but of course she had an excellent 
 character or I should not have engaged her." 
 
 " She may be as honest as the day, yet not 
 careful. In Carysfort's best interests I feel con- 
 vinced her accounts ought to be controlled." 
 
 "Mrs Leleu won't like it, I warn you." 
 
 " She will have the remedy in her own hands ; 
 she can leave." 
 
 " Would you go so far as that ? " asked Lady 
 Lezaire. " I should not like to lose her," she 
 would have added, but the man's determined, 
 masterful spirit frightened her. 
 
 " Why not ? Discipline must be main- 
 tained." 
 
 But he did not find the housekeeper pre- 
 pared to succumb without a struggle. 
 
 " You will be good enough to bring me the 
 house -books every Tuesday morning to my 
 study," he said abruptly to Mrs Leleu the
 
 THE COLONEL WORSTED. 107 
 
 mornino: Hubert had been ordered to leave 
 the Hall. 
 
 " Why should I show them to you ? Lady 
 Lezaire has never asked to see them all these 
 years," replied the housekeeper, rather im- 
 pudently. 
 
 "Because I tell you to do so," said the 
 Colonel coolly, looking hard at Mrs Leleu. 
 He met a pair of dark, defiant eyes, eyes as 
 bold and black as his own, and a fierce face 
 in which there were no signs of surrender. 
 
 " I shall only take my orders from her lady- 
 ship personally," said the housekeeper, with 
 increasing insolence. • 
 
 " The next orders you will receive will be to 
 leave the house — if necessary this very day," 
 went on the Colonel, with the air of a man 
 who meant to hold his own. 
 
 "You want to turn everybody out of the 
 house, Colonel St Evelyn. I have heard of 
 your cruelty to that poor creature, Hubert 
 Podifat." 
 
 "I think you had better mind your own
 
 108 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 business, Mrs Leleu," said the Colonel, 
 sternly. 
 
 " But you are not my master ; I have never 
 recognised you as such. I will see my lady, 
 and hear what she has to say," — and Mrs Leleu 
 walked off, tossing her head. 
 
 She was the first person at the Hall who had 
 resisted St Evelyn's authority, but she was not 
 to profit much by her temporary triumph. 
 
 "You will have to do as Colonel St Evelyn 
 tells you " — this was all the satisfaction she got 
 from Lady Lezaire — "unless, indeed, you prefer 
 to leave." 
 
 " I have been very comfortable here, my lady, 
 and I don't like change. But it's a little hard 
 to have a new master put over me." 
 
 " Everybody must give in to the Colonel. 
 He is acting for Sir Carysfort, the real master." 
 
 " I don't think Sir Carysfort will like the last 
 thing the Colonel's done." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " 
 
 " He has sent that poor Hubert Podifat away 
 from the Hall this morning."
 
 THE COLONEL WORSTED. 109 
 
 " Sent him away ? For good and all ? " 
 
 " I saw Gibbings, the Colonel's man, driving 
 him away in the tax-cart early this morning. 
 Going to Market Eeepham, I believe. Hubert 
 is to be bound to Coppocks, the land-surveyors." 
 
 " And Sir Carysfort knows ? " 
 
 " I don't believe it, my lady." 
 
 " I will see him as soon as possible, and settle 
 what is to be done. But as to you, Mrs Leleu, 
 you will have to give in to the Colonel or 
 go. 
 
 It did not suit Mrs Leleu to leave Straddle- 
 thorpe Hall just then, and she preferred to 
 make her submission to the autocratic mayor 
 of the palace, who now reigned supreme. But 
 if she yielded, it was with a bad grace, and 
 she treasured up much resentment against St 
 Evelyn in her heart. 
 
 Meanwhile Sir Carysfort, anxious to hear the 
 end of the previous day's escapade, had been 
 waking all the echoes with cries of " Hubert ! 
 Hubert ! " They told him Hubert had gone to 
 Market Eeepham.
 
 110 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 ^' What?— alone?" 
 
 " Gibbings^ took bim over," said old Peters, 
 maliciously. " I. don't think Hubert's coming 
 back to the Hall." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " 
 
 " The Colonel has given him the sack." 
 
 "Hubert gone! Oh, what a jolly shame!" 
 The boy flushed angrily. 
 
 *' It's the Colonel's doing : he's master here 
 now." 
 
 ** We'll see about that. I chose him for my 
 guardian, and I'm precious sorry for it. He 
 thinks himself the Great Mogul." 
 
 Carysfort went open-mouthed to his mother, 
 whom he found ready enough to listen to his 
 grievances. 
 
 "The Colonel," he began, "I hate him! Oh 
 mother, have you heard what he's done ? " 
 
 " Mrs Leleu told me." 
 
 " But you won't let Hubert be kept away ? I 
 could never stand that. You'll speak to him, 
 won't you ? " 
 
 "Why has Colonel St Evelyn taken such a
 
 THE COLONEL WORSTED. Ill 
 
 dislike to poor Hubert ? " asked Lady Lezaire, 
 evasively. 
 
 " How can I tell ? you had better ask him," 
 said the boy, not choosing to confess the pre- 
 vious day's escapade. *' But I won't stand this, 
 and I'll tell him so to his face. Come along, 
 mother, let's go and find him " — and the young 
 baronet dragged Lady Lezaire rather reluctantly 
 towards the Colonel's study, where they found 
 him looking over a number of cigars. 
 
 " I say. Colonel, what a beastly shame to 
 send off Hubert like that, without saying a 
 word ! " 
 
 St Evelyn ignored the boy, and addressed 
 himself to the mother. 
 
 '' You will, I am sure, approve of the step I 
 have taken. Lady Lezaire, when I tell you what 
 happened yesterday." 
 
 "I don't care," interrupted Carysfort; *'it's 
 a beastly shame, and I won't stand it ! " 
 
 " I think when you consider. Colonel St 
 Evelyn, how attached dear Carysfort is to 
 Hubert Podifat," said Lady Lezaire, temporis-
 
 112 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 ing, "you will agree that it would have been 
 better not to take so decided a step. Hubert 
 had better be sent for." 
 
 " I will never consent to that ; he is ruining 
 your son. Carysfort will be grateful to me 
 some day for having broken this disreputable 
 connection." 
 
 "I shan't!" cried Carysfort, rudely, "and I 
 will have Hubert back ! You're a beast. 
 Colonel, a brute! you bully everybody here, 
 but you shan't bully me. I am the real mas- 
 ter, and I would sooner have Hubert here than 
 you. I tell you he shall come back. I won't 
 be contradicted, — I will have my own way. 
 You are a beast, I say, and I hate you ! " 
 
 Carysfort had gradually worked himself up 
 into an ungovernable passion ; but after he had 
 delivered himself of this violent tirade, he threw^ 
 himself on the sofa, and stormed, and kicked, 
 and bellowed with rage. Lady Lezaire's 
 anxiety now was all for her son : she strove 
 to soothe and pacify him, and rang the bell 
 for assistance. The housekeeper was called
 
 THE COLONEL WORSTED. 113 
 
 in, and not without difficulty Sir Carysfort, 
 who was nearly beside himself, was got away 
 to his room. He continued in a state of hys- 
 terical excitement for some hours : the doctor 
 had to be sent for, and sedatives administered. 
 The boy was quieter and better towards even- 
 ing, but his mother w^as terribly concerned, 
 and in her heart greatly incensed against the 
 Colonel. 
 
 She was too proud to make a direct appeal 
 to St Evelyn, the justice of whose decision with 
 regard to Hubert she could hardly deny. But 
 Eachel tried to appease her husband, and the 
 gentle little wife eventually talked him over. 
 
 Hubert's appearance at Sir Carysfort's bed- 
 side that same evening immediately restored 
 the boy to health. Next day he was about 
 again as usual, and more devoted to Hubert 
 than ever. Colonel St Evelyn he studiously 
 shunned, but when they unavoidably met, 
 Carysfort's manner was surly and distant, 
 and it was quite evident that the fight over 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 114 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 Hubert had completely estranged the young 
 baronet. 
 
 Among the many enemies the Colonel had 
 made at Straddlethorpe, none now hated him 
 more cordially than the young master of the 
 Hall.
 
 115 
 
 CHAPTEE XI. 
 
 COUNTY VEXATIONS. 
 
 Although Colonel St Evelyn had established 
 himself pretty firmly at the Hall, his stay was 
 not without its vexations. 
 
 It was not pleasant for a man of his master- 
 ful spirit to be successfully opposed. He. had 
 certainly got the worst of it with regard to the 
 young baronet and his friend. Hubert Podifat 
 had returned, almost triumphantly, to Straddle- 
 thorpe, and the Colonel felt that every one re- 
 joiced at his defeat. 
 
 The unmistakable dislike Sir Carysfort now 
 openly evinced was another thorn in the 
 Colonel's side. It showed itself in brusque, 
 often rude replies ; sometimes in doggedly
 
 116 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 silent contempt. For days and days guardian 
 and ward were absolutely " cuts " ; at other 
 times they wrangled perpetually. 
 
 To be the object of constant undisguised 
 aversion is nearly certain to evoke the same 
 sentiment, and St Evelyn grew more and more 
 piqued : any liking he had once for the lad 
 presently disappeared. 
 
 Lady Lezaire was on her son's side, of course. 
 She encouraged him in his defiant behaviour, 
 and, gaining courage from her boy's boldness, 
 permitted herself to be positively uncivil to 
 St Evelyn. 
 
 Eepeated very plain hints that he had out- 
 stayed his welcome at the Hall was one of 
 many methods of showing their ill feeling. 
 
 " Why doesn't he go away ? " Sir Carysfort 
 would often ask. "He has been here long 
 enough. I thought he only came on a visit, 
 not to stay for years." 
 
 "Of course Eachel could not have been 
 moved till quite lately " — a child had recently 
 been born to the St Evelyns — "but now
 
 COUNTY VEXATIONS. 117 
 
 that is safely over, there is no reason why 
 they should not leave the Hall." 
 
 " I wish you'd tell him so. I hate the sight 
 of him, and I know he hates me." 
 
 Lady Lezaire was not long in finding an 
 excuse for conveying Sir Carysfort's views. 
 The hint was a very plain one. 
 
 " Brooke Lodge is in the market," she said 
 next day at the luncheon-table. 
 
 '* Oh ! " observed the Colonel, blandly. '' And 
 where is Brooke Lodge ? " 
 
 " It's a charming little house the other side 
 of Market Eeepham, very compact and com- 
 plete, and going quite cheap, I believe. You 
 know it, Eachel, don't you ? " 
 
 " Oh yes," replied her daughter, blushing. 
 With a w^oman's rapid intuition she had already 
 fathomed the meaning of Lady Lezaire's re- 
 mark. " The Duboulays lived there, I think." 
 
 " Yes, and the Creichtons. You might ride 
 over and look at it, Colonel," went on Lady 
 Lezaire. 
 
 " I ! Why should I ? I don't want the thing.
 
 118 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 I'm comfortable enough where I am," replied St 
 Evelyn, with a brutal frankness that for the 
 moment silenced Lady Lezaire. 
 
 The fact was, it by no means suited the 
 Colonel's book to set up an establishment of 
 his own. He was still secretly worried by his 
 financial affairs. Although marriage had re- 
 lieved him of many pressing anxieties, it had 
 put no large amount of ready money at his 
 disposal, and he had still a large balance of 
 unsettled debts. 
 
 These he had hoped to pay off by degrees, 
 by economies on the substantial income ac- 
 cruing from the investment of Eachel's portion, 
 — economies made the more easy by his pro- 
 longed residence at the Hall. 
 
 Had he been more prudent, he might have 
 seen the end of his troubles. But he could not 
 resist the temptation to back the winner, and 
 the winners of his choice had too often dis- 
 appointed him. Within this year his settle- 
 ments after Ascot and Goodwood had ]eft him 
 terribly to the bad. ^
 
 COUNTY VEXATIONS. 119 
 
 Something stronger than mere hints were 
 needed to dislodge him from Straddlethorpe. 
 The old soldier liked his quarters, and knew 
 when he was well off. 
 
 There were those who would have liked to 
 have got rid of the Colonel, not alone from the 
 Hall but from Thorpeshire. He had outlived 
 his popularity in the county, and the more he 
 was known the less he was liked. 
 
 He took too much upon himself, people said. 
 He was too interfering, too busy, too ready to 
 domineer, and manage everybody and every- 
 thing his own way. Now he wanted to re- 
 volutionise the Highway Board, next- the 
 county asylum, then the county jail. Things 
 went on quietly enough till he came into the 
 neighbourhood ; why could he not let them be ? 
 What if the jail was old-fashioned, dark, ill 
 ventilated, on too small a scale ? It had served 
 for generations — for centuries even. Who was 
 this Colonel St Evelyn — a stranger, an outsider, 
 a new-comer in the country — who presumed to 
 complain ?
 
 120 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 Antagonism and discontent rose to their 
 highest pitch when he sought to foist a 
 creature of his own, an old brother officer, into 
 the governorship of the jail. Thorpeshire was 
 tenacious of its county patronage : its appoint- 
 ments had been jobbed, handsomely, from time 
 immemorial, — invariably given to some local 
 candidate ; whether the most competent and 
 suitable mattered very little. 
 
 Yet St Evelyn managed to win the day. 
 Active, indefatigable, uncompromising in his 
 championship, an unwearied canvasser, he car- 
 ried all before him. The election was closely 
 contested. The county was split up into two 
 hostile camps, party spirit ran high ; but the 
 Colonel's nominee was the successful candidate, 
 and Captain Euddock, formerly of the Eoyal 
 Eangers, was duly elected Governor of the 
 jail. 
 
 This success, and not strangely, embittered 
 the feeling already hostile to Colonel St Evelyn. 
 No one hated him more cordially than General 
 Wyndham- Parker, who had been his most
 
 COUNTY VEXATIONS. 121 
 
 strenuous opponent at the recent election. The 
 General was a county man with a small estate 
 heavily encumbered ; not too affluent, therefore, 
 and blessed with many daughters, one of whom 
 had married his old aide-de-camp. 
 
 This gentleman, Captain Eichards, now re- 
 tired, had been a candidate for the jail gover- 
 norship, and his defeat was taken in very bad 
 part. The crime of it was of course visited 
 upon Colonel St Evelyn. 
 
 A very lively discussion followed the election. 
 Many of the magistrates who lived too far off to 
 return home to lunch met at the Eaven Hotel 
 after their labours were ended. • 
 
 ''He's a sharp, sensible sort of fellow any- 
 way," said Mr Etherly, who had supported the 
 successful candidate, and was anxious to justify 
 himself. 
 
 "You say that because you voted for him," 
 remarked another, laughing. 
 
 " He's not a gentleman," said General Wynd- 
 ham-Parker, a sharp-nosed, ferret-eyed, fidgety 
 little man, who had once held a command, and
 
 122 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 thought himself entitled ever afterwards to take 
 the lead. It was intolerable to him that St 
 Evelyn, so much his junior in military rank, 
 should not bow before him. *'How you could 
 bring yourselves to choose a low-born, common 
 cad like that " 
 
 " At least he's sound in wind and limb," said 
 Sir Archibald Bright, another of the opposition. 
 The General's son-in-law was evidently a weakly 
 creature, and this had really turned the election. 
 
 '* I suppose that is aimed at Eichards," re- 
 torted the General, fiercely. " If his health is 
 indifferent, it was damaged in the service of 
 his country." 
 
 " But the county jail is not a home for con- 
 valescents," put in old Etherly. 
 
 " At any rate, I don't envy the new man his 
 billet," said Sir Archibald Milman, to turn the 
 conversation. 
 
 " He won't be without friends," observed one 
 of St Evelyn's side. " The Colonel will see he's 
 not bullied." 
 
 " He may not be here always to stand by his
 
 COUNTr VEXATIONS. 123 
 
 nominee," replied General Wyndham- Parker 
 darkly. 
 
 " Why, what's to become of the Colonel ? 
 You won't get rid of him so easily." 
 
 *^ That's what my lady thinks. But he can't 
 stay at the Hall for ever." 
 
 " Of course not. The boy is growing up : he 
 will be of age in a few years. You don't sup- 
 pose he will let the Colonel go on cadging then?" 
 
 " St Evelyn will have feathered his nest by 
 that time." 
 
 *' Or have turned the right bird out." 
 
 " I don't see how he's to do that." 
 
 " He's not a man to stick at trifles, you may 
 depend," said General Wyndham-Parker, with 
 bitter meaning. 
 
 "Oh! come, I say," cried old Etherly. 
 "He's not half a bad chap. I don't think 
 it's fair to make such remarks." 
 
 "No; but really," asked another, who had 
 hitherto stood neutral, " what do you think 
 made St Evelyn so keen about bringing this 
 fellow in ? "
 
 124 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 " Public spirit, of course," replied a champion 
 promptly. 
 
 " Public spirit be hanged ! It's not that ; 
 it's his nasty, interfering, domineering ways." 
 " He wants a friend against the day he's sent 
 to jail," cried the General, still angrily, deter- 
 mined to think all evil. 
 
 " Oh, I say, draw it mild ! St Evelyn in 
 jail ! What in heaven for ? " 
 
 " Well, to begin with, if there was imprison- 
 ment for debt nowadays, he'd be run in fast 
 enough." 
 
 " Do you suppose he's really hard up ? " 
 "He hadn't a sixpence when he married. 
 And look at his tastes, all expensive : keeps 
 any number of nags, dresses no end, smokes 
 half-crown cigars." 
 
 " Then he plunges tremendously." 
 " Always ready to take or lay the odds." 
 " Or sit down to whist at five-pound points." 
 " Well, he goes the pace certainly ; but after 
 all, that's his affair. And he must have got a
 
 COUNTY VEXATIONS. 125 
 
 good round sum with Eachel Lezaire. If it's 
 nothing worse than debt " 
 
 "You wait," said the General, sticking per- 
 tinaciously to his point. " There'll be something 
 far worse than that one of these days, mark my 
 words." 
 
 Every one laughed at this, no one more 
 heartily than St Evelyn himself, to whom 
 the whole conversation was in due course 
 retailed. 
 
 But it will be readily understood that the 
 Colonel's life was not altogether haj)py in 
 Thorpeshire.
 
 126 
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 DOCTORS DO NOT DIFFER. 
 
 Let us return now to the sick-room where young 
 Sir Carysfort Lezaire lay at the point of death. 
 
 "My boy! my boy!" cried Lady Lezaire. 
 " Do tell me — are you in great pain ?" 
 
 The only answer her son vouchsafed was to 
 roll his eyes vacantly towards her. 
 
 ''Oh, Mr Freshener!" went on the unhappy 
 mother, " surely you are not quite helpless. Do 
 something, anything, I implore you." 
 
 " I am most anxious, my lady, I assure you. 
 As the stomach-pump is here, I will use it, for 
 it is now past seven, and I expect Sir Peregrine 
 or Dr Kobinson every minute." 
 
 " Perhaps before they arrive my dearest son
 
 DOCTOES DO NOT DIFFER. 127 
 
 will have succumbed. Do not, I beseecli you, 
 delay. Try and give dear Carysfort some 
 reHef." 
 
 The medical process which followed need not 
 be described in detail. But Mr Freshener 
 examined the result with considerable interest, 
 and afterwards appeared more perplexed than 
 ever. 
 
 To these poor bewildered creatures, the news 
 that a carriage approached was welcome in the 
 extreme. Mrs St Evelyn went to the window, 
 and, opening it, looked down the drive. 
 
 "Is it empty ? " cried Lady Lezaire, in a 
 tone of the utmost concern. 
 
 " No," replied her daughter; " I can plainly 
 see a figure inside." 
 
 " That must be Sir Peregrine. How good 
 of him to be so prompt!" — and Lady Lezaire 
 hastily passed down the grand staircase to meet 
 the London doctor as he entered the hall. 
 
 She was forestalled, however, by Colonel St 
 Evelyn, and when her ladyship reached the foot 
 of the staircase she saw the retreating figure
 
 128 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 of her son-in-law and Sir Peregrine as they 
 went into the study. 
 
 They had closed the door behind them, and 
 Lady Lezaire, although she at once followed, 
 paused irresolute as if hesitating to enter. In 
 spite of the sickening anxiety which oppressed 
 her, she still yielded an involuntary submission 
 to the man's stronger will. 
 
 The two men remained closeted together for 
 some time — a period which seemed quite inter- 
 minable to poor Lady Lezaire, but it was in 
 fact something under a quarter of an hour. At 
 length Lady Lezaire could brook no further 
 delay. Going up to the door, she knocked 
 nervously, and without waiting for an answer, 
 entered the room. 
 
 " I really beg your pardon, Sir Pere- 
 grine." 
 
 The London physician looked inquiringly at 
 Colonel St Evelyn. 
 
 " Allow me to introduce you," said the 
 Colonel ; " this is Lady Lezaire, the baronet's 
 mother. She is naturally anxious, as you may
 
 DOCTORS DO NOT DIFFER. 129 
 
 suppose, to have the benefit of your advice 
 for her sou." 
 
 " Yes, yes," interrupted Lady Lezaire ; " but 
 surely this is no time for compliments. I must 
 beg you, implore you, to come up and see my 
 son at once." 
 
 " Of course," replied Sir Peregrine — " that is 
 the sole object of my visit. I was only asking 
 this gentleman here " — and he waved his white 
 hand blandly towards St Evelyn — " what were 
 the facts of the case. It is quite impossible, 
 you must understand, my dear Lady Lezaire, to 
 arrive at a correct diagnosis without full infor- 
 mation as to all the antecedents." • 
 
 '•' Surely I could have told you all that better," 
 again interrupted Lady Lezaire, with both pet- 
 ulance and indignation in her voice ; "or Mr 
 Freshener, our regular attendant, could have 
 informed you better than any one else." 
 
 " Oh ! " observed Sir Peregrine, as if a new 
 light was breaking in upon him. " There is a 
 general practitioner, then, in charge of the 
 case f 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 130 BY HOOK OE CROOK. 
 
 " Of course," replied Lady Lezaire ; " lie is 
 up-stairs at this moment with my son." 
 
 " That being so, I had better join him at 
 once." 
 
 Lady Lezaire led the way, and Sir Peregrine, 
 with Colonel St Evelyn, followed. They found 
 Mr Freshener seated by the bedside, but he rose 
 on the appearance of the great leader of his 
 profession, and made the profound obeisance 
 which local obscurity likes to pay to metro- 
 politan greatness. 
 
 " We were most grieved, Sir Peregrine," said 
 little Mr Freshener, rubbing his hands, " to 
 encroach upon your valuable time ; but the 
 matter seemed so urgent, and the case, I may 
 say, so mysterious, that I felt it was imperative 
 to get the highest medical skill." 
 
 " Have you arrived at any decision ? Is there 
 nothing in the symptoms to give you a line ? " 
 
 " The symptoms are marked and plain enough. 
 But they all point to a solution which I cannot 
 but feel to be impossible and absurd." 
 
 " Kindly go over them," said Sir Peregrine,
 
 DOCTORS DO NOT DIFFER. 131 
 
 knitting his brows and assuming that air of ab- 
 straction which implies acute mental effort. 
 
 A whispered colloquy followed : after the first 
 half-dozen words uttered by Mr Freshener, Sir 
 Peregrine visibly grew more and more interested. 
 
 " Why, it seems to me perfectly obvious," he 
 muttered ; '^ these are the plainest symptoms 
 of " 
 
 He paused suddenly and looked round. The 
 word to which he would not give utterance for- 
 mulated a very grave charge against some per- 
 son or persons unknown. But with character- 
 istic and professional caution he reserved his 
 judgment until the fullest evidence was forth- 
 coming. 
 
 No improvement had shown itself in Sir Carys- 
 fort's condition. His physical sufferings were 
 extreme, but they were scarcely greater than 
 the mental anguish of those who stood around. 
 Presently the whispered conference between the 
 two doctors ceased, and Sir Peregrine, having 
 fortified himself with the local practitioner's 
 opinion, proceeded to examine the patient for
 
 132 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 himself. Lady Lezaire hung nervously upon his 
 movements, and keenly scanned the doctor's 
 sphinx-like face. 
 
 The examination ended, Sir Peregrine looked 
 portentously grave, but vouchsafed no remark. 
 A pause of some minutes followed, when Sir 
 Peregrine himself broke the silence by saying 
 to the other doctor — 
 
 "Mr Fresh " 
 
 " Freshener, Sir Peregrine." 
 
 " I think I must speak to you in private," 
 and the two withdrew to another room. Their 
 conference was long protracted, and when they 
 at length returned, Sir Carysfort seemed at 
 his last gasp. 
 
 He was quite conscious as the end drew 
 near. He knew his mother and sister, who 
 each held one of his wasted hands. He smiled 
 feebly at his friend Hubert, and spoke to all a 
 few broken words of farewell. 
 
 The baronet appeared also to recognise 
 Colonel St Evelyn, who came in at this the 
 supreme moment, but gave him no greeting,
 
 DOCTORS DO NOT DIFFER. 133 
 
 and seemed at first altogether indifferent to 
 his presence. 
 
 He gradually grew weaker and more faint, 
 and at length a species of comatose lethargy 
 took possession of him, from which there ap- 
 peared no prospect of recovery. 
 
 All at once, however, by a violent effort, he 
 raised himself in the bed, and with wild 
 haggard eyes pointed a finger at Colonel St 
 Evelyn ; then, with a half-uttered groan, sank 
 back on his pillow and expired. 
 
 It was a most painful and terrible scene. 
 Lady Lezaire, now completely unnerved, went 
 into violent hysterics, in which her daughter 
 out of sympathy presently joined, while Mrs 
 Leleu, the housekeeper, who came in at the last 
 moment, tried to soothe and pacify them. The 
 doctors looked at each other like men who 
 have a grave secret in common. Hubert 
 Podifat threw himself on the foot of the bed 
 and sobbed aloud, convulsed with a most 
 poignant sorrow. 
 
 The only person who stood quite unmoved
 
 134 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 was Colonel St Evelyn. He was the first to 
 break the silence of that grim and ghastly 
 chamber of death, and said to Sir Peregrine 
 Falcon — 
 
 "Now all is over, it is needless to prolong 
 this painful scene. Nothing remains to be 
 done, I presume, but to pay the last tributes 
 of respect." 
 
 " Pardon me," interrupted Sir Peregrine, 
 " something very important remains. I con- 
 sider that a jpost mortem is absolutely indispen- 
 sable. Do you agree with me, Mr Freshener ? " 
 
 "Certainly, Sir Peregrine, or I should with- 
 hold the certificate." 
 
 "Am I to understand, then," asked St 
 Evelyn, "that you are in doubt as to the 
 cause of death ? " 
 
 "Not exactly in doubt," replied the great 
 doctor ; " we have more than a strong suspicion. 
 But we wish to make assurance doubly sure." 
 
 " Suspicion ! Can it be possible that you 
 imagine there has been foul play?" 
 
 " Foul play is a strong term," replied Sir Pere-
 
 DOCTORS DO NOT DIFFER. 135 
 
 grine, " and we make no accusations — only we 
 must have well-substantiated facts." 
 
 "Your wishes are naturally law, and every 
 facility shall be given you," said Colonel St 
 Evelyn, in a somewhat constrained manner. 
 
 " It will be necessary also," put in Mr 
 Freshener, " to give notice to the coroner, as 
 an inquest must be held." 
 
 " Surely that is unnecessary — it will only 
 cause a serious scandal in the county." 
 
 " The necessity will depend upon the result 
 of the post mortem. But unless all our sus- 
 picions are completely falsified — unless, indeed, 
 our whole knowledge and acumen have sudden- 
 ly deserted us — I fear that, scandal or no scan- 
 dal, a coroner s inquest will have to be held." 
 
 " As I am magistrate for the county," replied 
 the Colonel, " it would ill beseem me to throw 
 any obstacles in the way of executing the law. 
 I myself will summon the coroner, although I 
 repeat that I consider the proceeding rather 
 uncalled for." 
 
 Sir Peregrine bowed gravely, but made no
 
 136 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 further remark. He had not come a hundred 
 miles from London to be taught his duty by a 
 provincial justice of the peace. Mr Freshener 
 sided with his professional leader of course, 
 although in Sir Peregrine's absence he might 
 have been overawed by Colonel St Evelyn's 
 magisterial manner. The Colonel was a power 
 at quarter sessions, and Mr Freshener, as 
 surgeon of various county institutions, re- 
 cognised the influence and authority of such 
 an active local magnate. 
 
 This short and somewhat unseemly discus- 
 sion was soon ended, and Mr Freshener, at the 
 instance of Sir Peregrine, begged that the bed- 
 room might be cleared. 
 
 " There were strong reasons," he said, in the 
 most delicate manner possible, "for separating 
 relatives so hastily from those well - beloved 
 remains. But what the doctors had to do 
 must be done without delay." 
 
 Poor Lady Lezaire was still almost stupefied 
 by the sudden sorrow which had fallen upon 
 her ; but her daughter, although she scarcely
 
 DOCTORS DO NOT DIFFER. 137 
 
 realised at first the meaning of this peremptory 
 summons to withdraw, persuaded her mother 
 to leave the room. 
 
 The two heartbroken women, with faltering 
 step and dejected air, passed out together. 
 The moment they had left the room, Lady 
 Lezaire's strength seemed to forsake her. She 
 tottered, and was on the point of falling to the 
 ground, but strong arms interposed to save her. 
 They were those of Colonel St Evelyn, who 
 had followed her out of the room. 
 
 The mere sight of her son-in-law seemed to 
 revive her flagging strength. With a sudden 
 eff'ort she broke from his arms and cried. pas- 
 sionately — 
 
 *' Do not touch me ! You have robbed me 
 of all I hold most dear in the world." 
 
 " Dearest mother ! " exclaimed Kachel, " what 
 do you mean by such terrible words ? " 
 
 *'Ask him — the husband you chose. Are 
 you too great a simpleton to understand that 
 he is now the absolute owner, through you, of 
 everything here ? "
 
 138 
 
 CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 THE coroner's JURY. 
 
 The doctors remained closeted in the death- 
 chamber for more than an hour. They were 
 closely engaged upon their painful and un- 
 pleasant task, and when they issued forth, their 
 habitual professional gravity had deepened to 
 the darkest gloom. The faces of both showed 
 that they possessed some portentous secret 
 in common, not to be lightly or too readily 
 divulsfed. 
 
 They came down the stairs together, both 
 silent and preoccupied ; but in the hall Sir 
 Peregrine said to Mr Freshener — 
 
 " I will leave you, then, to make all arrange- 
 ments. You will understand that time is of
 
 THE coroner's JURY. 139 
 
 the utmost consequence to me. I am wanted 
 in London ; my absence at this moment is of 
 the gravest inconvenience to my patients and 
 myself, and I must impress upon you the 
 necessity for releasing me at the earliest, the 
 very earliest, moment possible." 
 
 *' You may count upon me. Sir Peregrine," 
 replied the local doctor, bowing obsequiously. 
 " My horse is at the door, and I will ride over 
 at once to Market Eeepham." 
 
 *' The coroner lives there ? " 
 
 " Yes, Sir Peregrine — it is the county town, 
 and the headquarters of the police. They will 
 have to be informed." 
 
 "Assuredly, and some magistrate. It may 
 be necessary to issue warrants." 
 
 " The coroner's will suffice, if they find " 
 
 " Well, well," said Sir Peregrine ; "we must 
 not anticipate the verdict, although my mind 
 is perfectly clear. However, I will not detain 
 you." 
 
 " I shall be back here in less than a couple 
 of hours, Sir Peregrine. I will beg the coroner
 
 140 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 to impannel a jury at Market Eeepham, and we 
 will all come over together." 
 
 "Thank you, that will be the best. I think 
 now I shall beg them to allow me to retire, and 
 get a little rest." 
 
 A servant was called who found the house- 
 keeper, Mrs Leleu, and Sir Peregrine was shown 
 to a bedroom. Dr Freshener then mounted his 
 horse and rode off to Market Eeepham. 
 
 For a couple of hours the Hall remained 
 perfectly still and quiet, with blinds close 
 drawn, a house of deep mourning. Lady 
 Lezaire had shut herself up alone with her 
 grief; Mrs St Evelyn had also retired, after 
 vainly attempting to comfort her mother. The 
 Colonel was in his study, where no one dared 
 to intrude upon him. 
 
 He was looking out of the window with a 
 depressed and gloomy air, when the appearance 
 of a couple of flies, followed by a heavy lum- 
 bering omnibus, which he recognised as be- 
 longing to the Lezaire Arms at Market 
 Eeepham, surprised him, as they were
 
 THE coroner's JURY. 141 
 
 driven rapidly up the avenue towards the 
 house. 
 
 "What have we here?" he muttered. "I 
 wonder whether those doctors have done, and 
 what has become of them ? " 
 
 All doubt of the meaning of the approaching 
 vehicles was dispelled when they first pulled 
 up, and a superintendent of police jumped 
 out, followed by a short, stout man with long 
 grey whiskers, carrying a black bag. 
 
 " Why, it's Chibnal, the coroner ! Then there 
 is to be an inquest, and these, I suppose, are 
 the jury." 
 
 The next minute he was in the hall, recei»ving 
 the arrivals. 
 
 "Very painful, most unpleasant affair," said 
 little Mr Chibnal, deferentially. He had always 
 been a little afraid of the Colonel. 
 
 " I had no idea there was to be an inquest. 
 Who summoned you ? " asked St Evelyn, 
 briefly. 
 
 " Dr Freshener, the poor dear young baronet's 
 own medical man."
 
 142 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 "The result of the post mortem was not 
 altogether satisfactory then ? " 
 
 '' You must not ask me that. I know noth- 
 ing except what is deposed before me in the 
 open court. Where had the inquest better be 
 held, Colonel?" 
 
 " In the gun-room, I should think ; there is 
 plenty of room there for the jury and all — a par- 
 cel of greasy, dirty ruffians," he said to himself, 
 as he turned away to give the necessary orders. 
 
 " The superintendent will arrange all that, and 
 collect the witnesses. Meanwhile, gentlemen " 
 — this was to the jury, who still hung doubt- 
 fully and apologetically about the entrance-hall 
 — "we will view the body if you will follow 
 me ; Dr Freshener will show us the way." 
 
 A little later the inquest was formally 
 opened, and the first witness. Sir Peregrine 
 Falcon, was called. This was a tribute to his 
 eminence, and in deference to his wish to re- 
 turn to London without delay. 
 
 His evidence was startling, and terribly to 
 the point.
 
 THE coroner's JURY. 143 
 
 " I was summoned," he said, " from London, 
 and arrived here at 8 a.m. this morning. The 
 deceased was suffering from grave symptoms, 
 the cause of which I was at first unable to ex- 
 plain, but longer and closer examination sat- 
 isfied me that they were due to an irritant 
 poison." 
 
 Every one in the room, coroner, jury, and 
 police, started at the word, and many ejacula- 
 tions of surprise and horror followed. • 
 
 *' Gentlemen, gentlemen, pray do not inter- 
 rupt the witness. You said, Sir Peregrine " 
 
 " I said that I was convinced the deceased had 
 been poisoned. I had no doubt of this, but I 
 felt that an autopsy was desirable — anticipat- 
 ing your wishes in this respect, Mr Coroner." 
 
 "You did perfectly right, Sir Peregrine 
 Falcon. I am obliged to you for your promp- 
 titude in assisting the law." 
 
 " The post mortem examination was made by 
 Dr Freshener and myself, with the result I fully 
 anticipated. We discovered traces of poison 
 in the viscera, more particularly in the liver."
 
 (( 
 
 a 
 
 144 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 " And the poison was ? " 
 
 " Arsenic." 
 
 The jury looked at each other with grave, 
 scared faces, and the little coroner, no less per- 
 turbed, pulled himself together with the air 
 of a man determined to do his duty, however 
 unpleasant. 
 
 " Was the poison present in any large quan- 
 tity ? " asked the coroner. 
 No." 
 Then it may have been accidentally taken." 
 
 " That is as may be," said the great doctor, 
 " but you must not take it for granted that the 
 quantity discovered in the organs was all that 
 the deceased had swallowed." 
 
 ^' How do you mean. Sir Peregrine ? " 
 
 "I mean that the action of arsenic is to 
 produce violent retching, during which the 
 poison would be more or less thrown off." 
 
 *' Was that the case here ? " 
 
 " I expect so, but I have no proof of it. 
 There was much vomiting, but I regret to say, 
 I much regret to say, the product was not pre-
 
 THE coroner's JURY. 145 
 
 served. Had that been done, I think there is no 
 doubt we should have discovered arsenic in it." 
 
 " Why was it thrown away ? " 
 
 *'That I can't tell you," said Sir Peregrine, 
 shrugging his shoulders. 
 
 " Carelessness ? " 
 
 " That or " " something worse," Sir Pere- 
 grine would have said, but he checked himself 
 like a prudent man, hesitating to make accu- 
 sations. 
 
 " I gather from what you have already told 
 us, Sir Peregrine, that the deceased in your 
 opinion did not poison himself. Can you throw 
 any light, then, upon the manner in which the 
 arsenic was administered ? How, or by whom ? " 
 
 "I have no doubt that it was administered 
 more than once : the recurrence of the worst 
 symptoms at certain intervals would indicate 
 that. But as to how or by whom administered, I 
 am really unable to enlighten you in the least." 
 
 "I feared so," said the coroner. "The point 
 is one of the deepest importance, but we must 
 seek information elsewhere." 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 146 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 After this Sir Peregrine was allowed to with- 
 draw, and Dr Freshener was called in. The 
 local practitioner's medical evidence naturally- 
 corroborated Sir Peregrine's, but the coroner 
 hoped he would have something to say upon 
 the points his colleague had left in the dark. 
 This was evident from his first question. 
 
 " You were called in to the case at its com- 
 mencement, I believe ? " 
 
 "Not quite, but at any rate Sir Carysfort 
 had not been ill for more than an hour when 
 I arrived." 
 
 " He was in bed ? " 
 
 " Yes ; he had gone to bed directly he was 
 attacked." 
 
 " By whom was he attended ? " 
 
 "By his mother Lady Lezaire, Mrs St Evelyn 
 his sister, and the housekeeper Mrs Leleu." 
 
 " Were any of them alone with him at any 
 time ? " 
 
 " Not to my knowledge — at least, not in the 
 first part of the night ; but as it grew later, they 
 took it in turns to sit up with him."
 
 THE coroner's JURY. 147 
 
 "We have been told that certain grave 
 symptoms recurred at intervals : can you tell 
 us who had been nursing him when they 
 showed themselves ? " 
 
 " Not very correctly or distinctly, I fear. 
 Those symptoms appeared after each of the 
 ladies had been in the room." 
 
 " Were they the only persons who had access 
 to the sick-room ? " 
 
 " Oh no ; the young man, Podifat, was often 
 in the room — in fact he could hardly be per- 
 suaded to leave his young friend ; and Colonel 
 St Evelyn came and went frequently." There 
 was a pause. •■ 
 
 " You have told us that you arrived about an 
 hour after the illness first declared itself: the 
 deceased was conscious when you arrived ? " 
 
 " Yes, perfectly. He spoke to me, describ- 
 ing what he felt." 
 
 *' Did he offer any explanation — suggest any 
 cause, I mean — of the violent pains he suffered ? " 
 
 " No, although I entreated him to do so if 
 he could. I asked him how he had been spend-
 
 148 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 ing his day, — whether he remembered eating 
 anything likely to disagree with him ; but he 
 always shook his head, and declared he could 
 not understand why he was so ill." 
 
 There was not much more to be got out of 
 Dr Freshener, nor indeed from any one else. 
 The inquest sat for several hours, and examined 
 nearly every one in the house. Lady Lezaire, 
 out of deference to her sorrow, was excused, 
 and the jury agreed with the coroner that her 
 evidence was not indispensable. Great pains 
 were taken to get at the bottom of the mys- 
 tery, but a mystery it remained to the last — 
 a mystery, that is to say, as to how the crime 
 had been committed ; but that there had been 
 a crime, no one who heard the evidence had a 
 shadow of doubt. 
 
 The coroner's jury did not hesitate to give 
 their opinion plainly. They found that Sir 
 Carysfort Lezaire had met his death by poison ; 
 but as to how or by whom the poison had been 
 administered, there was no evidence to show.
 
 149 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 FURTHER INQUIRY. 
 
 It was a case of wilful murder : no one in 
 Thorpeshire had a doubt of that. Sir Carysfort 
 Lezaire had been murdered, poisoned wickedly 
 and secretly in his own home, by some person 
 or persons unknown. • 
 
 The news spread through the county quickly, 
 creating immense excitement. 
 
 Who had done it — and why ? This was the 
 question that every one asked, and every one 
 wanted to solve. There must be an inquiry, 
 every one was agreed. 
 
 But what was everybody's was nobody's 
 business. The days slipped by, yet nothing 
 was done. At length several of the magnates
 
 150 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 and leading magistrates put their heads together, 
 and it was decided, after consultation with the 
 chief constable, to employ the police, the details 
 being left to the chief. 
 
 Lady Lezaire had been much more prompt. 
 The moment her first paroxysm of grief had 
 subsided, she had communicated with Mr Tinson 
 of Lincoln's Inn Fields. The presence of the 
 family lawyer was indeed necessary at Straddle- 
 thorpe to regulate the affairs of the succession, 
 and it was only right that he should attend the 
 young baronet's funeral. 
 
 Mr Tinson's first visit on arrival was to Lady 
 Lezaire, with whom he was closeted for more 
 than an hour. Thence he went to his own 
 room, where a message was brought to him that 
 Colonel St Evelyn would like to speak to him 
 at once. 
 
 The Colonel received him in his study. 
 
 ''It is only by accident, Mr Tinson, that I 
 have learnt your presence here," he said, rather 
 stifily, to the lawyer, as he motioned him to a 
 seat ; " you might, I think— — "
 
 FURTHER INQUIRY. 151 
 
 "Lady Lezaire sent for me, and naturally 
 I went straight to her," interrupted Mr Tinson. 
 
 *' That was right enough. You are, I suppose, 
 her legal adviser, while you are not necessarily 
 mine, or rather my wife's." 
 
 Mr Tinson instantly became more civil. 
 
 *' I should, of course, have come to pay my 
 respects. Colonel St Evelyn, and to take any 
 instructions." 
 
 The lawyer knew that Colonel St Evelyn, 
 through his wife, was now the master of Strad- 
 dlethorpe, and he had no desire to lose the 
 legal business of so fine a property. 
 
 " I have no instructions. It would be inde- 
 cent to talk about business so soon. I was only 
 complaining of the want of courtesy you have 
 displayed in not coming to see me." 
 
 " Nothing of the kind was intended, I assure 
 you. Lady Lezaire had much to say to me, so 
 I went to her first." 
 
 " How she hates me, that woman ! " cried St 
 Evelyn, emphatically ; "I can't for the life of 
 me think why."
 
 152 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 Mr Tinson looked at him curiously. 
 
 " Lady Lezaire was wrapped up in her son." 
 
 " Well, is not Eachel, my wife, her daughter ? 
 We are both of us ready to devote ourselves to 
 Lady Lezaire, to make up to her somehow for 
 the grievous loss she has sustained. But she 
 keeps Eachel at a distance, and won't see me 
 at) ail. 
 
 *' So I understand." 
 
 " Did she tell you so ? " 
 
 " I think, if you will permit me, I will not 
 repeat anything that occurred at my interview 
 with Lady Lezaire. She is my client, as you 
 say, and lawyers, like doctors, are bound to be 
 silent." 
 
 ''It is quite impossible, if this continues, that 
 we should go on living together. We can hardly 
 remain under the same roof." 
 
 "Do you mean that you wish to leave 
 Straddlethorpe ? " 
 
 "Is it our place to leave ? To whom does 
 Straddlethorpe now belong ? " 
 
 " I had forgotten," said the lawyer, bowing,
 
 FURTHER INQUIRY. 153 
 
 " for I could not bring myself to believe that 
 Mrs St Evelyn would wish to turn her mother 
 out of doors." 
 
 "Nor does she — yet. For the present we 
 are going away. It would be most painful to 
 remain here under the circumstances." 
 
 "That I can quite believe," observed Mr Tin- 
 son, drily. 
 
 " After this terrible heartbreaking accident," 
 went on Colonel St Evelyn. 
 
 "Accident!" cried Mr Tinson, in evident 
 surprise at the expression. 
 
 " Certainly accident. I have no doubt in my 
 own mind that poor Carysfort met his death 
 through some shocking imprudence. He was 
 always running wild about the country — of 
 course I have much reluctance in saying this 
 of the poor dear boy, but it is the truth. He 
 was here, there, and everywhere with his friend 
 Hubert Podifat, and he must have picked up, 
 somewhere or other, the stuff that proved fatal 
 to him." 
 
 "But unless I am mistaken," protested Mr
 
 154 BY HOOK OR CKOOK. 
 
 Tinson, " the verdict of the inquest, backed up 
 as it was by the clearest medical evidence, de- 
 clared that he had been poisoned by arsenic. 
 Now arsenic, you must admit, is not to be 
 picked up anywhere. You would not find it 
 easy, Colonel, to buy arsenic." 
 
 *' I ! why should I buy arsenic ? " 
 
 The two men looked fixedly at each other. 
 But Colonel St Evelyn's eyes did not quail 
 before Mr Tinson's piercing gaze. 
 
 "But I am not so fully convinced, as you 
 appear to be, that arsenic was the cause of 
 death." 
 
 "You can't get over the verdict, and Sir 
 Peregrine Falcon's opinion. It's the highest 
 in the medical profession." 
 
 "Pshaw! doctors have been wrong before 
 now, and Falcon admitted that the quantity 
 of poisonous matter discovered in the intes- 
 tines was extremely small. No ; I shall not 
 be easily persuaded that there was foul play. 
 Something more tangible must be elicited, and I 
 do not see at present how it is to be obtained."
 
 FURTHER INQUIRY. 155 
 
 There was an accent of interrogation in his 
 speech, so Mr Tinson thought, which put the 
 suspicious lawyer on his guard. 
 
 ^* Do you propose to institute an inquiry ? " 
 was his evasive reply. 
 
 " I do not see the least necessity for it : does 
 Lady Lezaire ? " 
 
 " The subject is far too delicate to be touched 
 on at present with her ladyship. At least I 
 should not like to mention it to her; perhaps 
 she will broach the subject to you." 
 
 " I tell you she will not see or speak to me. 
 But if she wants to do so, it must be soon." 
 
 " You think of leaving the Hall, you say ? " 
 
 " Yes ; directly after the funeral we shall start 
 for the seaside for two or three months. After 
 that, we shall return to establish ourselves here, 
 and I take this opportunity of informing you 
 that we hope to have the Hall to ourselves." 
 
 " Is that intended as a message for me to 
 convey to Lady Lezaire ? " 
 
 " It is. She is a client of yours, as you say, 
 and as she chooses to have no communication
 
 156 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 with me direct, I cannot do better than speak 
 to her through you." 
 
 " When do you wish me to tell her this ? " 
 
 " Oh ! not immediately, of course. You had 
 better wait a few days, till after the funeral, 
 or till we are out of the place. Thank you ; 
 that is all I have to say to you, Mr Tinson. 
 Business, as I told you, will keep." And the 
 Colonel showed Mr Tinson the door. 
 
 Sir Carysfort's funeral was very largely at- 
 tended. Every one of position in the county 
 came in person or sent his carriage. All the 
 servants at the Hall, Hubert Podifat, most of 
 the tenants on the estate, and many of the 
 tradesmen from Market Eeepham, followed. 
 
 Colonel St Evelyn represented the family, as 
 chief mourner, much against Lady Lezaire's 
 wish, indeed in spite of her. But there were 
 no relatives, near or far ; the baronetcy was 
 now extinct, and but for the son-in-law the 
 Straddlethorpe carriage would have been empty. 
 
 A solemn and decorous gravity, as became 
 the occasion, sat upon the face of the man who
 
 FURTHER INQUIRY. 157 
 
 was really heir to the deceased. But there 
 were no symptoms of very keen sorrow, and 
 his demeanour was cold and repellent to the 
 few who approached him in the churchyard and 
 after the ceremony with expressions of sym- 
 pathy. They were few, these friends, and he 
 might see for himself, if he looked round at this 
 great county gathering, that public opinion was 
 against him. 
 
 Within a day or two the St Evelyns left the 
 Hall. It was then that local gossip, fed by 
 vague but increasing suspicion, took more 
 practical shape. The Colonel's hasty depar- 
 ture was exaggerated into disgraceful flight ; 
 and it was decided, as has been said, to make 
 further inquiry into the circumstances of Sir 
 Carysfort's death.
 
 158 
 
 CHAPTEE XV. 
 
 THE POLICE AT WOUK. 
 
 On the same day that the St Evelyns left, Mr 
 Tinson drove over to Market Eeepham in a fly 
 ordered from the town, to meet the afternoon 
 express from London. He was waiting on the 
 platform when it disgorged its half-dozen pas- 
 sengers, and he seemed to have no difficulty in 
 recognising the person he wanted amongst the 
 number. 
 
 " Ah, it's you, Faske ! I'm glad they've 
 sent you down," was his greeting of a thick-set, 
 quietly dressed man, with sharp eyes and a 
 determined face. 
 
 " Well, as you mentioned my name, Mr Tin- 
 son, they could do no less at the Yard," replied
 
 THE POLICE AT WORK. 159 
 
 the other, rocking his head slightly, as though 
 to balance a rather too loosely-fitting hat on 
 the top of it ; " but I shan't be able to stop in 
 these parts long." 
 
 Mr Tinson's face fell. 
 
 " You see we're so busy just now. Them Irish 
 are giving no end of trouble, and I'm in that 
 Clerkenwell job. But surely you've got some 
 of the locals at work ? " 
 
 " The chief constable has been told by the 
 justices to pick out a young fellow to take 
 charge of the case, and I've just seen him. But 
 nothing has been done yet." 
 
 " What like is he ? Where is he ? Young, 
 you say ? Any gumption ? I don't care much 
 for boys with short police experience. They're 
 so cocky — had no failures, you see, and think 
 they can teach us old hands their work. But 
 where is this young chap ? We'd better have 
 a confab without more loss of time." 
 
 "He's at the police-station waiting. Shall 
 we go round ? " 
 
 In a few minutes more they had been intro-
 
 160 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 duced by the chief constable to a young man — 
 he looked like a young gentleman — of pleasant 
 address and excellent manners. 
 
 Alfred Earswick, as he was called, had studied 
 medicine, and had taken his diploma, but he 
 had not fallen on his feet as regards practice. 
 After a hard struggle for existence, he had 
 turned his back on his profession and joined 
 the police. He had entered as a common con- 
 stable, just to get bread, but he had hopes that 
 his superior education and general aptitudes 
 might some day give him advancement in 
 county or borough police. 
 
 In appearance Earswick was tall, and rather 
 awkwardly put together. He had a small head 
 for his height, with straight, sandy, reddish 
 hair, which he parted in the middle, and wore 
 rather long. Under pale straw-coloured eye- 
 brows were a pair of small but piercing and 
 very mobile grey eyes. He had a slight mous- 
 tache of the prevailing tone of his hair, but 
 lighter, and a very large mouth plentifully 
 stocked with brilliant white teeth, which he
 
 THE POLICE AT WORK. 161 
 
 showed a good deal. No one could call him 
 handsome, yet he was not exactly plain, and 
 his face lighted up pleasantly when he talked. 
 
 '^ You are already well up in the case ? " asked 
 the chief constable of the London detective. 
 
 " So far as it has been published — nothing 
 more. Is there anything to tell ? Have you 
 come upon any new facts ? " 
 
 The latter part of this speech was addressed 
 to the young local detective. 
 
 " I have only to-day been instructed to act. 
 I am still quite in the dark as to the whole 
 affair," answered Earswick. 
 
 " You've read the report of the inquest, I 
 suppose ? " said Mr Faske, rather contemptu- 
 ously. 
 
 " No ; I cannot say that I have. But that 
 won't take long. I think you have it, sir," 
 he said, addressing the chief constable. 
 
 While the young man read his brief, Mr 
 Faske nursed his left leg and consulted his 
 shoe-string, as his custom was. 
 
 " The first thing in all these cases, according 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 162 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 to my idea," he said at length, with the air of 
 a man who had reason to be proud of his ideas, 
 " is to look about and consider who is likely to 
 be most benefited by the crime, if crime there 
 has been." 
 
 " As to that there is not the slightest mys- 
 tery. Sir Carysfort Lezaire's death benefited 
 one person very considerably," said Mr Tinson, 
 promptly. 
 
 '' Yes ? To whom do the estates go ? " 
 " To the sister, Mrs St Evelyn." 
 "His sister!" A shade of disappoint- 
 ment crossed Mr Faske's face. ''It is hardly 
 likely that she could have committed the 
 
 crime." 
 
 " Certainly not. No one would think of ac- 
 cusing her — a sweet woman, a little weak per- 
 haps, but no other fault. It is her weakness 
 that brings her so completely under her hus- 
 band's subjection." 
 
 " Her husband is living, then ? " 
 
 "Very much so." 
 
 " What sort of character does he bear ?
 
 THE POLICE AT WOEK. 163 
 
 Does he live in these parts ? Who and what 
 is he ? " 
 
 " I cannot answer all these questions at once," 
 said Mr Tinson with some hesitation, and look- 
 ing at the chief constable to help him. *' Cap- 
 tain Bracebridge here has known him — Colonel 
 St Evelyn, I mean — nearly as long as I have." 
 
 " I ? Oh, don't ask me ! I have nothing to 
 say against Colonel St Evelyn," protested the 
 chief constable with evident reluctance. 
 
 " Hang it all ! " cried Faske ; " why this 
 beating about the bush ? I must know all you 
 know " 
 
 " We hnow nothing," said both almost m a 
 breath. 
 
 "Well, all you think. You must make a 
 clean breast of it always to the police as you 
 would to a doctor. Come." 
 
 "For my part I am possessed of only the 
 vaguest suspicions. But I wish to keep nothing 
 from you — don't imagine that." 
 
 And Mr Tinson told the detective everything 
 he knew about St Evelyn and the Lezaires.
 
 164 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 He began with the Coloners appointment as 
 guardian ; went on to the marriage ; then de- 
 scribed the stay at the Hall, and the Colonel's 
 behaviour there ; his masterful arbitrary ways ; 
 the quarrels with the young baronet, and the 
 hatred engendered ; last of all, he recounted 
 the closing scenes of the poor lad's short life. 
 
 " You say the Colonel made light of the last 
 illness ? " 
 
 " Distinctly. He laughed at the necessity 
 for calling in a doctor; he opposed Lady Le- 
 zaire's sending to London for Falcon ; when 
 Falcon came, St Evelyn kept him as long as 
 possible from the bedside." 
 
 " Had the Colonel access to the sick-room ? " 
 
 " Continually." 
 
 *' Alone?" 
 
 ^' There is nothing to show that, but it is 
 highly probable." 
 
 " Other people went into the sick-room, of 
 course ? " 
 
 " Naturally. But why suspect any of them ? 
 The mother and sister ; the housekeeper, a
 
 THE POLICE AT WORK. 165 
 
 neutral person ; a young fellow, the baronet's 
 most devoted friend, — were they likely to do 
 the deed ? Why should they ? " 
 
 " Mrs St Evelyn might, under her husband's 
 compulsion." 
 
 " Impossible. You would say so if you knew 
 her." 
 
 " And the others — of course I exclude the 
 mother — had no interest in the baronet's death?" 
 
 " The only people who benefited by it were 
 the St Evelyns." 
 
 Mr Faske was silent for a time. 
 
 *' Then you believe the Colonel administered 
 the poison ? " he said suddenly to Mr Tinsdn. 
 
 ** I never said so," replied the lawyer quickly. 
 
 " No ; but you plainly implied your belief. 
 Do not be afraid of sticking to it. Frankly — 
 I quite agree with you." 
 
 " I knew you would," cried Mr Tinson, 
 delighted. 
 
 '* But you have no proof — not the slightest 
 proof," interposed the chief constable. 
 
 " For that we must depend upon our young
 
 166 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 friend here," said Faske patronisingly, as lie 
 put his hand upon Ears wick's shoulder. *'We 
 must send him into the enemy's camp." 
 
 " To the Hall ? " asked Ears wick. 
 
 " Certainly. Are you afraid ? The Colonel 
 won't eat you. Besides " 
 
 *' The Colonel's not there ; he left this 
 morning." 
 
 " Gone ? Abroad ? Yes ? Do you mean to 
 tell me you Thorpeshire police have let him slip 
 through your fingers like that ? " 
 
 " He has only gone to France." 
 
 " France ! Pshaw ! There's extradition with 
 France. You'll hear of him next in Sweden 
 or in Spain — somewhere beyond the reach of 
 a warrant. Yah ! Fancy that ! " 
 
 It is impossible to express the London detec- 
 tive's disgust. He promptly gave up nursing 
 his leg, and jumping to his feet strode up and 
 down the room. 
 
 " To bolt would be to give up all profit from 
 the murder. Would he do that, do you think, 
 and while he still believes there is no evi-
 
 THE POLICE AT WORK. 167 
 
 dence against him ? " suggested the chief con- 
 stable. 
 
 "There's something in that," said Faske, 
 becoming more calm. 
 
 " Whether or not, the mystery ought to be 
 unravelled," put in Earswick, who was all 
 eagerness to get to work. " The proofs should 
 be forthcoming, the case prepared. Fearing 
 nothing, he will no doubt return one of these 
 fine days, and then " 
 
 "You're right, young man. We must pro- 
 ceed with the inquiry, so far as it will go — 
 at least you must, Mr Earswick. So prepare 
 to take up your quarters at the Hall." • 
 
 " Shall I go openly ? " asked the young 
 police officer. 
 
 " Are you known there ? " 
 
 *' I don't think so. But some of the servants 
 may have seen me in the town here at Sessions' 
 time." 
 
 "It will be better to remain incog. You 
 will be freer, and may get your information 
 easier," said Faske.
 
 168 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 "How shall I disguise myself?" 
 
 "What will be best, Mr Tinson? Can't we 
 get him in without exciting suspicion ? " 
 
 " He could go as my clerk," replied the law- 
 yer. " The change of ownership must lead to 
 lots of work : taking inventories, sorting papers, 
 and so forth. It would be quite natural for me 
 or one of my people to be constantly at the 
 Hall." 
 
 " Of course Lady Lezaire would have to 
 know," suggested the chief constable. 
 
 " Is she safe ? " asked Faske, anxiously. 
 
 " As any of us. Lady Lezaire will only too 
 gladly help the law. She would be truly re- 
 joiced, I feel sure, if the real murderer met with 
 his deserts." 
 
 " Can you make up like a lawyer's clerk, 
 Mr Ears wick ? " was Faske's next question. 
 
 " Why not ? Wait half an hour, and tell 
 me if you know me, or would take me for any- 
 thing else." 
 
 The man who by-and-by returned to the 
 police office bore no resemblance to the young 
 detective.
 
 THE POLICE AT WORK. 169 
 
 It was a lantern-jawed, lank-haired, middle- 
 aged man, dressed untidily in rusty black, with 
 a wisp of white neckcloth and crumpled linen. 
 His hair, his eyebrows, and his moustaches 
 were dyed black, and a pair of steel-rimmed 
 spectacles hid the brightness of his inquisitive 
 eyes. 
 
 "That will do first-rate," said Faske, ap- 
 provingly. 
 
 " You re not a clerk to be proud of," added 
 Mr Tinson, with a laugh. "But I've seen 
 fellows like you. Come along. I'll give you 
 a blue bag and some bundles of papers, and 
 we'll drive straight to the Hall." • 
 
 " Stay," said the chief constable to his sub- 
 ordinate. " How are we to communicate ? " 
 
 " By post. There is a letter-box just at the 
 Lodge gates," said the lawyer. 
 
 "Eemember you must post everything your- 
 self, and be careful; cautious and cunning, 
 that's your motto. But use both your eyes 
 and your ears." 
 
 This was Faske's parting advice as the detec- 
 tive followed Mr Tinson into the fly.
 
 170 
 
 CHAPTEE XVI. 
 
 EAESWICK ALIAS QUELCH. 
 
 The day was closing in when Mr Tinson and 
 his clerk reached Straddlethorpe. They were 
 shown at once into the library, the room ap- 
 propriated by the lawyer, where Mr Quelch, 
 for so Earswick was to be called, waited while 
 Mr Tinson had an interview with Lady Lezaire. 
 
 ** Everything is settled," said the lawyer, 
 by -and -by. " Lady Lezaire thoroughly un- 
 derstands. As my clerk you will have every 
 facility, Mr Earsw " 
 
 " Quelch, you mean." 
 
 "I beg your pardon, Quelch. You will use 
 this room for business during the day, take 
 your meals in the housekeeper's room, and
 
 EAESWICK ALIAS QUELCH. 171 
 
 sleep in the servants' wing ; in fact, have the 
 run of the whole place." 
 
 " It'll be odd if I don't run up against some- 
 thing soon. I'd like to begin at once. May 
 I ask you one or two questions ? " 
 
 " By all means. Go on." 
 
 * ' The servants here — do you know anything 
 of them ? " 
 
 "Very little. This is my first visit to the 
 Hall for some years." 
 
 " That was the butler, I think, who let us in ? 
 Long here ? " 
 
 " I think not. He is only a lad, as you saw. 
 Put in by the Colonel, I believe, who said, the 
 old man made too free with the port." 
 
 *'The coachman?" 
 
 " He is a very old servant, I know, and has 
 stood his ground, although the Colonel was 
 pretty rough on him." 
 
 " Had the Colonel a man of his own ? " 
 
 "Yes, Gibbings by name, an old soldier. 
 Looked a smart little man, although I never 
 spoke to him."
 
 172 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 " Gone with his master ? " 
 
 '' I really cannot say. You'll easily find out." 
 
 "And this housekeeper; if I am to live at 
 her table I shall see a good deal of her. It is 
 as well to be prepared. What of her ? " 
 
 " I only know her as a superior sort of woman. 
 Civil-spoken, rather a foreign appearance, dark 
 eyes, pale face, self-possessed, with a determined 
 look about her." 
 
 " Been here long ? " 
 
 *' Half-a-dozen years, I believe." 
 
 " Not a nominee of the Colonel's, then ? " 
 
 " Certainly not. I have heard they had 
 several tussles at first." 
 
 " But she is still here ? " 
 
 " I suppose she gave way." 
 
 "A wise woman. But she's not likely to 
 love the Colonel all the same. If I can only 
 get her to talk." 
 
 But it was not so easy to make Mrs Leleu 
 talk. When the lawyer's clerk, Mr Quelch, 
 made his way to the snug room the housekeeper 
 called her own, he found a table liberally spread
 
 EAESWICK ALIAS QUELCH. 173 
 
 after the Thorpesliire fasliion for "high tea." 
 Mrs Leleu received him civilly, and pressed 
 him to partake of the many good things pro- 
 vided — the cold goose, the ham-and-eggs, the 
 pressed tongue, the potted beef, and the half-a- 
 dozen dishes of sweets — but this hospitable 
 duty performed she lapsed into silence, an- 
 swering his many questions by monosyllables 
 or not at all. 
 
 *' Here's diet for a hungry Londoner," he 
 cried. 
 
 No remark. 
 
 " I don't often sit down to such a spread." 
 
 "Ah!" 
 
 "Won't you be tempted with a slice of 
 tongue, or a little goose ? " 
 
 "Thank you; no." 
 
 " Of course : I see. Sad time this ; can't 
 eat. But you should, you should, or you'll lose 
 strength." 
 
 *' You were very fond of him, I suppose ? " 
 Mr Quelch inquired feelingly, trying another 
 line.
 
 174 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 " WllO ? " 
 
 *'The young master; the poor young fellow 
 that's gone." 
 
 Mrs Leleu nodded. 
 
 " So sudden too ! Only ill one day, I hear. 
 Only twenty-four hours 1 " 
 
 " Twelve." 
 
 " Dear, dear ! how sad ! And the cause, the 
 real cause, no one knows ? " 
 
 '' I don't." 
 
 This was not encouraging, but Mr Quelch 
 would take no rebuff. 
 
 " Ought we to have begun ? " he continued, 
 pointing to a third place, still empty, at table. 
 " You're expecting some one else ? " 
 
 " No one — to speak of. Young Podifat," re- 
 plied Mrs Leleu, briefly and ungraciously. 
 
 " Oh ! " The lawyer's clerk had not yet 
 heard of Hubert Podifat, and he was wonder- 
 ing to whom Mrs Leleu had referred thus dis- 
 paragingly when Hubert himself slouched into 
 the room and flung himself into a chair near 
 the window.
 
 EARSWICK ALIAS QUELCH. 175 
 
 "Now, manners," cried Mrs Leleu, per- 
 emptorily. 
 
 Hubert's head was sunk low between his 
 shoulders, and his ungainly body lay half col- 
 lapsed in the seat. 
 
 " Come to the table and eat your tea," went 
 on the housekeeper more angrily ; and with a 
 sulky half-silly air the youth presently com- 
 plied. 
 
 *' Who's that chap ? " he asked with his mouth 
 full, nodding towards Mr Quelch. " What's he 
 doing here ? " 
 
 " Speak more civilly. A friend of my lady's." 
 Mrs Leleu looked ashamed of Hubert's rude- 
 ness, and as if to turn it off, began talking 
 with the lawyer's clerk. 
 
 " How long have you been with Har- 
 veys i 
 
 " Harveys ? " Mr Quelch did not seem to 
 understand. 
 
 " Harvey and Tinson's — your employers," 
 said Mrs Leleu. "Don't you know their 
 names ? "
 
 176 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 "We always speak of the firm as Tinsons/' 
 replied Mr Quelch readily. 
 
 " Still do business in the same place ? " went 
 on Mrs Leleu. 
 
 " Oh yes." The answer was put, but in his 
 heart Mr Quelch cursed his carelessness in 
 forgetting to ask Mr Tinson his office address. 
 
 " Essex Street, Strand ? " Mrs Leleu inquired, 
 carelessly. 
 
 How should he answer? While Mr Quelch 
 paused in cautious doubt, Hubert blurted 
 out — 
 
 " Mr Tinson's place is in Lincoln's Inn Fields. 
 I've heard Carysfort say so." 
 
 Had Mrs Leleu laid a trap for him ? If so, 
 why? Did she suspect him to be other than 
 he pretended? He feared so, from the angry 
 way in which she took up Hubert. 
 
 " See here ; don't poke yourself into other 
 people's talk, Hubert Podifat, or you may go 
 short at supper." 
 
 " I shall have to be on my guard with this 
 woman," said Mr Quelch to himself; and he
 
 EARSWICK ALIAS QUELCH. 177 
 
 soon left the table to rejoin Mr Tinson in the 
 library. 
 
 " Mrs Leleu ? " said the lawyer, in answer 
 to his clerk's suggestion that the housekeeper 
 seemed suspicious. " Only inquisitive. All 
 women are. But I'm not much afraid of her. 
 It's Gibbings you must be careful with, the 
 Colonel's man ; he's still here, I find." 
 
 Mr Quelch saw nothing of Gibbings that 
 evening, but Mrs Leleu was waiting to show 
 him to his room. 
 
 ^'I hope you'll be comfortable here, Mr 
 Quelch," said the housekeeper, holding up the 
 lighted candle while he lit his own. " My. lady 
 wished it. Anything we can do ? One of the 
 maids would have unpacked your valise for 
 you, but it was locked." 
 
 " Thank you," said Mr Quelch, producing his 
 keys. " But I always prefer to do that myself." 
 
 ''Good night, then, Mr Quelch. Our regular 
 breakfast is at eight, but you can choose your 
 own time. I think everything is all right here," 
 and she waved the candle round, ending the 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 178 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 movement close to Mr Quelch's face. " Good 
 niglit." 
 
 *'That woman's on the alert for some reason 
 or other ; but I trust I'm a match for her." 
 
 And with this consoling reflection Mr Quelch 
 turned into bed. 
 
 He was up with the lark next morning ; the 
 bright summer's sun aroused him early, and he 
 was glad to be out and about before the whole 
 house was stirring. 
 
 A very short toilet sufiiced. He tumbled 
 into his clothes, gave one look in the glass, one 
 touch with the hair-brush — of the greasy black 
 pomatum sold as infallible by the Market Eeep- 
 ham hairdresser — to renew the freshness of his 
 glossy black curls, and then he was ready. 
 
 When he returned an hour or two later to 
 dress more carefully, he had explored the greater 
 part of the grounds ; had learned how the land 
 lay, the position of the offices, stables, and so 
 forth, and had looked through the principal 
 rooms on the ground-floor, still in the hands 
 of the housemaids. 
 
 To his surprise he found his own bedroom
 
 EAESWICK ALIAS QUELCH. 179 
 
 door ajar. He thought he had locked it. At 
 any rate, he had put away the tell-tale hair- 
 dye ; at least he was sure of that. 
 
 They were making his bed, he supposed. A 
 figure, a female figure, was stooping over it as 
 he entered, and a second glance satisfied him 
 it was Mrs Leleu. 
 
 At this moment the housekeeper, unconscious 
 of Mr Quelch's return, came from the bedside. 
 She was moving tow^ards the window, and close- 
 ly, minutely examining the pillow she was car- 
 rying as she went. 
 
 Mr Quelch instantly knew why. His heart 
 gave a great jump, and he realised that his 
 secret was in this woman's hands. 
 
 The pillow-case was marked and stained with 
 greasy black patches just where the sleeper's 
 head had lain. 
 
 " You should have worn a night-cap," said 
 Mrs Leleu with killing sarcasm, as she looked 
 up and saw the culprit. 
 
 " I ought, I admit, and in future I will. I 
 feel very foolish, Mrs Leleu. My vanity has 
 been properly exposed."
 
 180 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 " Yanit}^ ! Was it only that ? " She spoke 
 with scornful disbelief. " No, no ; I know 
 better. You're not what you pretend." 
 
 " But I assure you " 
 
 " You let the cat out of the bag yourself last 
 night. I saw then your hair was dyed. Who 
 are you ? One of the police ? " 
 
 " I am Mr Tinson's clerk." 
 
 '' So's my grandmother. You're wasting 
 breath and time. Why not make a clean breast 
 of it ? I might help you." 
 
 " My real name is Earswick, I belong to the 
 Thorpeshire constabulary," the detective con- 
 fessed, after a very short pause. 
 
 " And you are here to get evidence to make 
 up a case against, against " 
 
 She seemed to shrink from mentioning the 
 name. 
 
 ''Against the person most strongly suspected. 
 Do you know whom I mean ? " 
 
 " Yes, yes." She hissed out the affirma- 
 tive with the intense energy of personal hate. 
 ''Colonel St Evelyn. It is he; he did it, the
 
 EARSWICK ALIAS QUELCH. 181 
 
 murdering, black-hearted villain that he is. He 
 did it : only he." 
 
 " How do you know ? Can you tell me any- 
 thing — anything that will justify arrest, that 
 will help us to convict ? " 
 
 *' I don't know. I may, perhaps. We shall 
 see. But we'll hang him yet — hang him as he 
 so richly deserves." Again fiercest hate gave 
 ghastly meaning to the terrible threat. 
 
 Earswick — we will so know him — remembered 
 what Mr Tinson had said of the enmity between 
 Colonel St Evelyn and the housekeeper. No 
 doubt Mrs Leleu might be useful. 
 
 " You promise your help, then ? " • 
 
 " Yes ; if I have a chance. But you may 
 rely at least upon my holding my tongue. No 
 one shall know who you are through me. But 
 mind others don't find you out." 
 
 " No fear ; I shan't be caught twice." 
 
 "Be on your guard — with Gibbings in par- 
 ticular. He is devoted to his master, so keep 
 him at a distance if you can."
 
 182 
 
 CHAPTEE XYII. 
 
 tayloe's 'toxicology.' 
 
 Aftee breakfast Ears wick had a few words with 
 Mr Tinson. The lawyer was on the point of 
 starting for the station to catch the morning 
 express. 
 
 "Oho I" he said laughing. "So Mrs Leleu 
 has penetrated your disguise. Sharp woman. 
 But it don't much matter, and she may be of 
 use. What are your plans ? " 
 
 " I hardly know ; beyond this that I 
 
 must hunt up what I can against the Colonel, 
 search his rooms " 
 
 " Mrs Leleu can help you there." 
 
 " And Gibbings : if I can only get the better 
 of him."
 
 Taylor's * toxicology.' 183 
 
 *' You may ; that's your buisness. But mind 
 what you're about. He's an old soldier and has 
 seen something of the world. Better try the 
 housekeeper first." 
 
 Earswick felt the advice was sound, and after 
 parting with Mr Tinson sought out Mrs Leleu. 
 
 **Well, what can I do for you, Mr Quelch?" 
 she asked. 
 
 " I want to see the house, all parts of it ; the 
 young baronet's bedroom, and more especially 
 the Colonel's room." 
 
 " Bedroom, or sitting-room ? " 
 
 "The latter, if he had it to himself. The 
 bedroom of course he would share." • 
 
 " Yes, he had a private sitting-room — study, 
 it was called, although it was more an office or 
 a den." 
 
 " Where is it ? I'll go there first." 
 
 "Near the front hall. But you'd better 
 wait till you're sure Gibbings is out of the way. 
 If he was to see you fumbling about in the 
 Colonel's room he'd be sure to suspect." 
 
 *' Confound Gibbings! I must begin with
 
 184 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 him, then. Where shall I be likely to find him, 
 Mrs Leleu ? " 
 
 " In the stables ; he's always there about 
 this time. He's the Colonel's stud -groom, 
 you know." 
 
 " That's good news. I'm fond of horses my- 
 self. Perhaps it will be an introduction ; " and 
 so saying the detective went in search of the 
 redoubtable Gibbings, who was found in the 
 yard. 
 
 A dapper, light-weight, neatly built man was 
 Gibbings, rather "horsily" dressed, in New- 
 market jacket, breeches, and gaiters, a white 
 scarf, and horse-shoe pin. He had greyish, close- 
 cut hair, a short whisker, and clean - shaved 
 upper lip under his rather prominent bird-like 
 nose. 
 
 Gibbings wished it forgotten that he had 
 shouldered a musket and served the Queen as 
 one of the rank and file ; but he could not 
 divest himself of his soldierly air. He stood 
 straight and erect at the entrance of the hunt- 
 ing stable, giving his orders to the helpers in
 
 Taylor's 'toxicology/ 185 
 
 the short sharp tones of a man who had learned 
 to command when obliged to obey. 
 
 " Now, my young shaver, put your back into 
 it — more elbow-grease," he was saying as Ears- 
 wick approached to a lad polishing a bit. 
 
 " Here you, Jacob ! " was his next remark as 
 he stepped into a stall and passed his hand 
 down a horse's legs. " D'ye call this proper 
 work ? Them fetlocks are wringing wet still. 
 You leave them like that again and I'll wheel 
 you into line." 
 
 "How's Corporal Major?" he went on. 
 " Let's look at that eye in the open." Dick 
 led him out into the yard, and Gibbings fol- 
 lowed the horse into the daylight without 
 noticing Earswick. 
 
 In the yard Gibbings took hold of the horse's 
 head, and having removed a bandage, narrowly 
 examined the horse's right eye. 
 
 " More specks : another attack of inflamma- 
 tion, I'm afraid. Worse luck." 
 
 " A case of * lunatic eye,' eh ? — returns with 
 every moon," suggested Earswick.
 
 186 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 "Holloa! where did you drop from?" Gib- 
 bings asked, turning quickly. "What do you 
 know about it ? Who are you ? What do you 
 call yourself ? " 
 
 " I'm Stephen Quelch, Mr Tinson's clerk." 
 
 " That don't qualify you as a vet. What do 
 you know about horses ? " 
 
 " A thing or two. I served my time with a 
 farrier before I studied law, and liked it better. 
 Let's look at his eye." 
 
 Earswick's examination was long and minute. 
 
 " You may save it. He's a young one. 
 What are you doing for him ? Bleeding ? Are 
 his stables clean and cool ? " 
 
 " Might be better, perhaps. We're thinking of 
 cutting away the ' haw,' — you see it protrudes." 
 
 "Don't do it — on no account; it will only 
 blind the horse. No ; sweeten his stable, or 
 move him if you can. Plenty of mild exercise, 
 and above all a good lotion always to the eye. 
 Goulard water, or vinegar and w^ater; they're 
 both used." 
 
 "We've a lotion of our own, prepared from
 
 Taylor's 'toxicology.' 187 
 
 » 
 the Coloners own prescription ; makes it up 
 
 himself." 
 
 " He knows, does he ? " 
 
 " Ought to, from the times he's been at it. 
 And so do you, seemingly. Not that you look 
 to know much about a horse." 
 
 " Looks don't count," said Ears wick, laughing. 
 " This is the right rig for Lincoln's Inn. They 
 wouldn't stand a down-the-road coat and a wisp 
 of straw in the mouth there." 
 
 " You've not been always at that game, I 
 understand you to say ? " 
 
 " Not L I was in a sporting stable first, then 
 I took to doctoring horses. I've seen a thing 
 or two." 
 
 ''Ain't much to choose, I daresay, between 
 a real ' leg ' and a limb of the law." 
 
 " The law could give the ring half a stone 
 and walk away from them. I've seen some rare 
 plants in my time." 
 
 Gibbings looked at him and winked. Mr 
 Quelch began to interest him. Here was a man 
 with experiences he liked to hear.
 
 188 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 " If you've an eye for a horse, you may like 
 to see our lot," said the Colonel's man civilly, 
 as he led the way back to the stable. 
 
 This was a fine chance for Earswick, a long 
 step towards that intimacy he wished to estab- 
 lish. Before he parted with Gibbings they had 
 agreed to discuss a cool tankard together at the 
 " Cow and Pail " that afternoon. 
 
 " I shall be done long before then," said 
 Gibbings ; " but I've got a job in Market Eeep- 
 ham that'll keep me till dinner-time. See you 
 again." 
 
 And with that the man went away, leaving 
 Earswick to return to the Hall and seek out 
 Mrs Leleu. 
 
 "Now's my time," he said to her quickly. 
 " You promised to show me all over the house. 
 Gibbings has gone to the town, and I shall have 
 a clear hour or more. Take me to the Colonel's 
 
 study." 
 
 The room, as Earswick found, scarcely de- 
 served its name ; it had been a sort of business 
 or justice room in Sir Percy Lezaire's time,
 
 Taylor's 'toxicology/ 189 
 
 handy to the front door, where the late baronet 
 saw bailiff or keeper, or, on emergency, members 
 of the county constabulary. 
 
 Its position had recommended it to the 
 Colonel, who kept there his gaiters and his 
 hobnailed boots, his spud and hunting-crop, 
 and a very comfortable pair of slippers. Other 
 marks of his occupancy were to be seen in the 
 gun-cases, old Indian friends with strange ad- 
 dresses on them ; in the fishing-rods, gaff, and 
 nets ; in the pipes and boxes of cigars. 
 
 Over the mantelpiece hung a few prints : one 
 represented officers and men in the full uniform 
 of the Eoyal Eangers, his old regiment. ^The 
 rest were portraits of famous racehorses. West 
 Australian, Wild Dayrell, and Genghis Khan, 
 an Arab he had himself owned at Masulipatam. 
 
 '' 1 may be here some little time, Mrs Leleu. 
 Perhaps you'd better leave me." 
 
 " Mind Gribbings don't " 
 
 " He shan't catch me here," said Ears wick, 
 with confidence ; but when Mrs Leleu had left 
 him he was careful to lock the door.
 
 190 BY HOOK OR CEOOK. 
 
 " Now where shall I begin ? " said the detec- 
 tive, looking round. " This is his own private 
 room, much as when he left it, I should say. 
 Has he left any indication, any tell-tale, any 
 clue as to what he has been doing, eh ? " 
 
 " What sort of man was the Colonel ? A 
 sportsman, clearly. A man of business ? H — m, 
 well, yes ; these papers are not untidy, they are 
 docketed and arranged all of them as they 
 should be. Methodical, I should say, and 
 regular." 
 
 "Books? Not over-fond of reading, I take 
 it, although this was called his study. Studied 
 Euff mostly, I expect — I see he has the com- 
 plete set there — and books upon horse-doctor- 
 ing and dogs." 
 
 There was a bookcase in one corner of the 
 room, which Mr Earswick was examining as he 
 talked to himself — an old-fashioned bookcase, 
 with glass doors above and a cupboard below. 
 
 Neither was locked, and after taking down 
 a few of the books on the shelves, Earswick 
 opened the cupboard and looked in.
 
 Taylor's 'toxicology/ 191 
 
 A lieap of old rubbish ; piles of sporting 
 papers long since out of date, cartridge-cases, 
 a whip-lash, a pair of rusty spurs, and other 
 nondescript odds and ends. 
 
 Nothing worth looking at, surely. But it 
 was his duty to examine everything, to lose no 
 chance, to leave no stone unturned; and he 
 dragged out the whole contents of the cup- 
 board into the light. 
 
 It was at the very last, on the bottom shelf, 
 and underneath, that he extracted a book, a 
 nearly new book, bound in green cloth, its 
 pages not entirely cut, with all the appearance 
 of having been scarcely read or little used. ^ 
 
 " How came it here ? By accident or design ? 
 What is it called ? " 
 
 And he opened it at the title-page almost 
 carelessly, then gave a sudden start. 
 
 " Struck oil, by Jove ! There's something 
 in this, or I'm a Dutchman. ' Taylor on Toxi- 
 cology,' a new book on poisons, hidden away in 
 the Colonel's room ! "
 
 192 
 
 CHAPTEE XYIIL 
 
 DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE. 
 
 The discovery Earswick had made in the 
 Colonel's study seemed sufficiently important 
 to warrant closer investigation. 
 
 That a work on poisons should be found at 
 the Hall just now was a curious, nay, a sus- 
 picious circumstance. It became doubly so 
 when the place and manner of the discovery 
 were considered. 
 
 ''How came it here?" said the detective, 
 as he drew a chair to the window and sat down 
 to think, still holding the volume in his hand. 
 " Was it concealed purposely, or carelessly 
 thrown aside ? 
 
 " If the former, why not destroyed ? burnt,
 
 DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE. 193 
 
 for instance? It would have been effectually 
 hidden then. Or was it forgotten, overlooked, 
 after it had served the purpose for which it had 
 been procured ? 
 
 *'That brings me to why he got it, and 
 when. Before or after the crime ? If the 
 former, he bought it to further the deed ; if 
 the latter, it was mere curiosity — perhaps he 
 wanted to read up something about this arsenic 
 that had done such terrible mischief. 
 
 " Will it be possible to fix the date of pur- 
 chase, I wonder ? Does the book itself tell 
 anything ? " 
 
 He began now to examine it more closely y 
 a thick, squat, small octavo volume, bound in 
 green cloth, evidently new or nearly so, many 
 of its pages still uncut. 
 
 " No trace of where it was bought ? " he 
 went on, looking inside the cover, where book- 
 sellers usually put their address labels and 
 marks. " They might have been removed ; or 
 was it got second - hand at some bookstall ? 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 194 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 It looks rather too fresh for that ; however, no 
 one knows. 
 
 "Uncut in parts? What parts are cut? 
 The index, that of course ; and, as I live I the 
 pages dealing with arsenic. Then the book 
 must have been bought in connection with the 
 crime. But before or after, which? The 
 cutting of the pages might support either 
 hypothesis. . 
 
 " I wonder what Taylor says about arsenic. 
 I ought to know ; I read the book in my 
 student days, but can't remember now. Here 
 it is : — • 
 
 " ' Arsenic is the bungler's poison, likely to be used 
 by the illiterate and uninformed. The symptoms 
 it produces are so plain, the traces it leaves so un- 
 mistakable, that only a clumsy criminal would use it 
 to destroy human life.' > 
 
 " Did he read those words, I wonder ? How 
 would they affect him ? If he saw them first 
 when the deed was already done, it would lead 
 him to fix the crime on some one in a lower 
 class. The same argument applies, and with
 
 DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE. 195 
 
 greater force, if he read the book before the 
 murder. It would suggest to him an easy- 
 method of shifting suspicion from himself. 
 
 " This brings me back to where I started. 
 I must and will discover from whom the book 
 was first purchased." 
 
 He was still sitting by the window which 
 commanded the drive as far as the Lodge gates. 
 
 " By Jove, there's Gibbings ! Back already ! 
 He must not find me here." And the detective 
 sprang to his feet, closing the book with a bang. 
 
 The action sent a small scrap of paper flying 
 into the air. It must have been lying between 
 the pages. • 
 
 Earswick stooped to pick it up, and slipping 
 it into his waistcoat-pocket, hastily quitted the 
 room. 
 
 He went up-stairs to his own quarters, mean- 
 ing to put the book on poisons in some safe place, 
 and with this idea locked it up in his port- 
 manteau. Then he sat down, and fingering his 
 waistcoat-pocket almost mechanically, extracted 
 the bit of paper.
 
 196 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 " It may have some value, considering 
 where I found it," he said as he looked 
 at it. 
 
 More indeed than he had supposed. 
 
 It was only a morsel of paper, but it had a 
 peculiar significance, a meaning all its own. 
 
 Earswick knew at a glance that it had come 
 from a chemist's shop. There was not a doubt 
 of that. It was a bit of blue paper such as 
 chemists use to envelop their drugs, and there 
 was still sticking to it a portion of the label 
 and address. 
 
 Its exact shape and appearance, with the 
 letters still legible, are reproduced below. 
 
 "Luck indeed!" cried the detective, more 
 and more elated, as he scrutinised this tell-tale
 
 DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE. 197 
 
 fragment more and more closely. " Little 
 doubt that I shall make a good job of this now. 
 Any one can see what this paper once con- 
 tained. PO in red letters are clearly those of 
 the warning label POISON, that every chemist 
 is bound by law to affix to what he sells. 
 Below, GR are the initial letters of that 
 chemist's name ; he lived in High Street 
 somewhere, that is equally plain. A little 
 patience will certainly bring me to that 
 chemist's door — if I have to search the whole 
 of the archives of the Pharmaceutical Society ! 
 but, please goodness, a county directory will 
 suffice. ^ 
 
 "That will keep, however, till later in the 
 day. Let me consider first what this new 
 discovery means." 
 
 He walked up and dow^n his room slowly, 
 pondering on what had occurred. 
 
 " I have no doubt now that the book was 
 bought before the murder. It was a stepping- 
 stone leading straight to the crime. The scent 
 is weak, perhaps, but we are on the trail. I
 
 198 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 must have more evidence, of course, to run the 
 Colonel in ; it will have to be proved that he 
 administered the drug — not necessarily proved, 
 but at least strongly presumed, and I am far 
 from that still, although I begin to have no 
 moral doubt who did the crime. If I can only 
 bring home the purchase of this arsenic to him, 
 or connect it in any way with that which 
 caused Sir Carysfort's death ! " 
 
 After more deep cogitation, Earswick pre- 
 pared to leave his room. 
 
 " I suppose nothing was found in the young 
 baronet's bedroom ; I wonder whether it was 
 searched ? A little late in the day, perhaps ; 
 still I ought to look into this." 
 
 And with this idea he again went to the 
 housekeeper. 
 
 " Well ? " asked Mrs Leleu, curious as to the 
 result of his investigations in the Colonel's 
 study. 
 
 *' Nothing much." The detective had already 
 learned the lesson of caution, and talked as 
 little as possible of the progress he made, even
 
 DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE. 199 
 
 to a possible ally and friend. "At any rate, 
 Gibbings came back, and I thought it better 
 to make tracks. But there is something 
 else you promised me." 
 
 "I'll be as good as my word. What was 
 it?" 
 
 "Can I see the young baronet's bedroom 
 now? The one in which he died, I mean." 
 
 " Why, surely 1 You will just have time 
 before dinner." And Mrs Leleu led the way 
 to the first floor. 
 
 The bedchamber in which the last painful 
 scene had been enacted was locked ; it had 
 been shut up entirely since the funeral. 
 
 The housekeeper opened the door, then 
 stepped to the window to draw up the blinds. 
 
 "Is the room just as it was?" asked Ears- 
 wick, looking round. 
 
 " Pretty nearly. But of course it's been 
 thoroughly cleaned." 
 
 "Ah! I thought so. I can't have it all my 
 own way," said the detective half to himself, 
 with a vexed, disappointed air.
 
 200 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 ' ' You couldn't expect the place to be left as 
 it was — after a death too ? " 
 
 " Who cleaned the room ? One of the 
 maids ? " 
 
 " Simpson, the second housemaid." 
 
 " I should like to see her, to ask her a few 
 questions." 
 
 " Won't I do ? I was with her all the time." 
 
 " Were you, Mrs Leleu ? That's better. 
 What was done ? — carpet up ? " 
 
 " No ; only swept with tea-leaves." 
 
 " Which were thrown away ? " 
 
 " Naturally, on to the dust-heap ; we couldn't 
 keep them." 
 
 " Was the bed moved ? " 
 
 " Yes, and the whole of the furniture." 
 
 "Even to this waste -paper basket?" said 
 the detective, pointing to one which stood 
 near the fireplace, and which was by no means 
 empty. 
 
 " Well, no. Now you ask me, I believe that 
 basket was forgotten ; how or why I cannot say." 
 
 He had not listened to more than the first
 
 DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE. 201 
 
 few words, but had swooped instantly down 
 upon the waste-paper basket, the contents of 
 which he at once emptied upon the dressing- 
 table. Then he went through the whole of 
 the rubbish, carefully examining every atom of 
 refuse, every scrap of paper, one by one, till he 
 had considerably diminished the heap. 
 
 Only at the last was his patience rewarded, 
 and he came upon two more scraps of blue 
 paper, identical, as he fondly hoped, with that he 
 had discovered in Taylor's ' Toxicology.' These 
 he transferred quickly to his waistcoat-pocket, 
 caring little whether Mrs Leleu had noticed 
 the action or not. , 
 
 " I shall want to go to the dust-heap by-and- 
 by," he said, laughing. 
 
 " You do your work thoroughly, and no mis- 
 take. Nasty work too, I take it. I'm glad I 
 don't earn my living that way. But you had 
 better have your dinner first, or the smells 
 might do you harm." 
 
 " I will just step up-stairs to wash my hands, 
 and then be with you, Mrs Leleu."
 
 202 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 The detective wanted another five minutes 
 to compare the fragments last found with the 
 first. 
 
 Both were of the same colour, but only one 
 bore any portion of the printed label, the end 
 evidently, as the letters plainly showed : — 
 
 i 
 
 N 
 
 f ^ 
 
 
 y E T 
 
 
 Y 
 
 
 " N, in red ink, the last letter of poison. Y, 
 the last letter of the chemist's name. How long 
 a name, I wonder ? Three red letters interven- 
 ing, ISO. Not a very long name, at any rate. 
 There are the two last letters also of street, 
 but only the final letter of the town or place. 
 Not much to go upon, but enough, I hope, 
 even if the dust-heap yields no treasures." 
 
 The dinner was much the same as the 
 previous meals. Mrs Leleu did the honours
 
 DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE. 203 
 
 hospitably ; and the loutish Podifat slouched 
 in as usual when the others had half done. 
 
 " We will go now to the dust-heap," said 
 Earswick, after Podifat had left the room. 
 
 " I'll show you where it is, if you wait till 
 I put a bonnet on ; but you can't expect me to 
 be raking and routing in such filth. I should 
 lose all my authority in this house if I were 
 seen there by the maids." 
 
 " No one will see us now : the dinner is go- 
 ing on in the servants' hall." 
 
 '* Well, well ; have your own way." And 
 Mrs Leleu escorted the detective to the outer 
 yard, where the tubs containing the pig's-wash 
 was kept and all the household refuse was 
 thrown. 
 
 Here she left him, and Earswick, who had 
 armed himself with a garden-rake, stoutly at- 
 tacked a heap in one corner which Mrs Leleu 
 had indicated as that most likely to contain the 
 sweepings of the up-stair rooms. The detective 
 was soon encouraged by the unmistakable evi- 
 dence of tea -leaves in large quantities, show-
 
 204 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 ing that the house-cleaning at S traddle thorp e 
 was very thoroughly and completely done. 
 
 No dustman or chiffonier could have turned 
 over the uninviting mass more delicately or 
 with greater patience and care. But Ears- 
 wick raked out more than half the rubbish 
 before he came upon what he sought. 
 
 There they were, however, at last : many 
 more scraps of the same bright blue paper, 
 damp and mildewed by their contact with the 
 moist leaves, but still perfectly recognisable. 
 He picked them up, four or five, as eagerly as 
 a gold-digger or diamond-seeker the last pro- 
 duct of repeated washings. Holding them 
 gingerly in the hollow of his hand he once 
 more regained his room. 
 
 Amongst the pieces picked up on the dust- 
 heap was that containing the centre of the 
 torn label, and he could now supply the miss- 
 ing letters. 
 
 Putting the whole together, the label read as 
 follows : —
 
 DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE. 205 
 
 POISON 
 
 G K A V E L Y 
 
 HIGH MARKET STREET 
 CLEOBURY 
 
 " That's splendid ! Before the day is out I 
 will know who it was that bought the poison."
 
 206 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE CHEMIST OF CLEOBUE-Y. 
 
 Cleobuhy was a village, or something more, 
 lying a dozen miles from Straddlethorpe, 
 on the opposite side from Market Eeepham. 
 Earswick knew it perfectly well, although his 
 police duties had never taken him in that direc- 
 tion. It was on the railway, on the branch line 
 that ran from Market Reepham to the Wolds. 
 This line was that which served Straddlethorpe, 
 but the station was a mile or more from the 
 Hall. The detective, eager to follow up the 
 scent already so warm, was all impatience to 
 pay a visit to the chemist's, but he remembered 
 his engagement to drink a pot of ale with Grib- 
 bings at the village public that afternoon.
 
 THE CHEMIST OF CLEOBURY. 207 
 
 " What shall I tell him ? " thought Earswick. 
 "That I am called away on business? He 
 might want to accompany me, and that would 
 be awkward. At the same time, I must not 
 throw him over — he may be of use to me. I 
 shall want to know more about the Colonel, per- 
 haps, and it won't do to quarrel with the man 
 yet. I suppose I had better keep my appoint- 
 ment with Gibbings, and go to Cleobury later 
 in the day." 
 
 Accordingly he strolled over to the " Cow 
 and Pail " about three o'clock, where he found 
 his friend. 
 
 " Thought you weren't coming," said Gib- 
 bings, after doing the honours. 
 
 ^'I'm on a long job, and the governor would 
 cut up rough if it weren't done in time ; he's a 
 tight hand. Is yours ? " 
 
 " What ! the Colonel ? Easy as a glove while 
 you run his way." 
 
 " Have you been with him long ? " 
 
 " Nigh upon nineteen years. He picked me 
 out as his batman when I was only a raw re-
 
 208 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 cruit, and I have stuck to him ever since. He's 
 been a good master to me, and I like his ways." 
 
 " A sportsman, eh ? " 
 
 " I believe you. He's a fine judge of a horse, 
 and loves them as I do." 
 
 "Kaces? Bets?" 
 
 " We've been upon the turf, him and me, from 
 the time we lay at Bareilly with the old corps. 
 He had a Pegu pony there that nothing could 
 touch, and we owned the famous Arab, Genghis 
 Khan — you may have heard of him — that upset 
 all the pots at Madras." 
 
 " Does he own any race-horses now ? " 
 
 " Not at present," said Gibbings, implying 
 that the Colonel might some day have a stable 
 second to none. "Now we've come into our 
 money, perhaps " 
 
 " The Colonel's richer than he was, then ? " 
 
 " Why, you ought to know that. Don't his 
 missis come in for all this ? " 
 
 And Gibbings waved his hand towards the 
 fields, every acre of which belonged to Straddle - 
 thorpe.
 
 THE CHEMIST OF CLEOBURY. 209 
 
 " Yes, but there are such things as settle- 
 ments. Perhaps the property's tied upon her 
 and her chicks." 
 
 " Anyhow he'll have the control of the income, 
 a good round sum ; and he'll spend it, too, like a 
 prince. He wanted it." 
 
 ''What! The Colonel was a little short of 
 cash, eh ? " 
 
 " It ain't my business to talk over my master's 
 affairs, but I know he dropped on the Two Thou- 
 sand, and he's got a heavy book for the Leger." 
 
 " The only books he cares about, I take it." 
 
 " You're right there. The Colonel's not what 
 you call a studious character. I never knew him 
 read much but Kuff, or ' Youatt on the Horse.' " 
 
 ''He's a bit of a horse-doctor, I think you 
 said ? " 
 
 " I'll back his recipes against any in the king- 
 dom. He makes them up himself." 
 
 A sudden qualm seized Earswick. What if 
 the arsenic had been bought as stable medicine ? 
 
 " Secrets, eh ? " asked the detective. " You 
 couldn't tell a friend what he uses ? " 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 210 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 '*I couldn't, for I don't know. But I could 
 let you have any to try ; I generally keep some 
 of each." 
 
 Earswick thanked Gibbings cordially, and 
 noted the offer as one that might still serve in 
 the inquiry. 
 
 They gossiped on for half an hour more, ex- 
 changing ideas upon stable management, racing 
 scandals, and the straightest tips. 
 
 At last Earswick got up saying — 
 
 " I must go back to my papers. Worse 
 luck 1 " 
 
 *' Shirk 'em," said Gibbings. " Come along 
 with me. I'm going to exercise the horses ; 
 you shall have a mount." 
 
 " Wish I could, but I daren't. Ta, ta ! " and 
 Earswick returned to the Hall. 
 
 His talk with Gibbings had been distinctly 
 useful to him. Much light had been let in on 
 the Colonel's ways, and something more than 
 a hint of impecuniosity had been thrown out, 
 suggesting, if not absolutely supplying, a motive 
 for the crime.
 
 THE CHEMIST OF CLEOBUEY. 211 
 
 " if I can only tumble upon something at the 
 chemist's," said Earswick. "Ill go there now, 
 only I must let Gibbings clear out first." 
 
 And he stood by the window, watching the 
 grooms ride away with their string of horses. 
 Then he put on his hat and walked over to 
 Straddlethorpe station. 
 
 It was still daylight when he reached Cleo- 
 bury. Five minutes' walk brought him to the 
 straggling hamlet, consisting of little more than 
 one long street, extending to either side of the 
 central market square. 
 
 On one side of this, just opposite a decrepit 
 equestrian statue that might have been Julius 
 Caesar or George I., was the chemist's shop of 
 which he was in search. 
 
 Mr Gravely, whose name appeared in large 
 letters over his shop-front, stood behind the 
 counter, — a short-sighted, nervous little man, 
 whose freckled face turned pale at the first 
 abrupt question asked by the detective — 
 
 " Do you keep a poison-book as required by 
 the statute ? '^
 
 212 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 " Poison -book ? " repeated the chemist in an 
 agitated voice, as if anticipating trouble. 
 
 " Precisely ; to register the sale of all poisons. 
 You are wondering, perhaps, why I ask. I am 
 a police officer ; here is my card. Be careful." 
 
 "I am sure I have no wish to be otherwise. 
 I am most willing to help the law," said Mr 
 Gravely, bowing humbly and rubbing his 
 hands. 
 
 " Then let me see the book — if you have one. 
 If you haven't, you will get into trouble." 
 
 *'But indeed I have. I am bound to observe 
 the statutes. Here it is." 
 
 Earswick drew a stool to the counter, and 
 quickly turned over the leaves of the ledger. 
 He began with the last entry, and followed with 
 his finger every other for many pages back. 
 
 Suddenly he stopped with a cry of satisfac- 
 tion. 
 
 *'Here it is; his own name too. What a 
 double-dyed egregious fool ! But I suppose he 
 could get it on no other terms." 
 
 ''Look at this, please," he went on, address-
 
 THE CHEMIST OF CLEOBURY. 
 
 213 
 
 ing the chemist. " Do you recollect the cir- 
 cumstances under which this entry was made ? " 
 "That? Certainly," replied the chemist, 
 reading the entry aloud from a form, of which 
 the following is an exact copy : — 
 
 Date. 
 
 188- 
 29 April 
 
 Drug. 
 
 Quantity. 
 
 Purpose. 
 
 Arsenic 
 
 ^ drachm 
 
 Horse 
 medicine 
 
 Signature. 
 
 F. St Evelyn 
 
 Witness. 
 
 H. Gravely. 
 
 "You sold this quantity of arsenic to the 
 person who signed for it ? " 
 
 " Person ? Why, of course. It was Colonel 
 St Evelyn of Straddlethorpe Hall." 
 
 " You are certain of that ? You knew him ? " 
 
 "To be sure. Everybody knows Colonel St 
 Evelyn. He has not been long in the county, 
 but he goes about a good deal." 
 
 " And the witness knew him ? But how do 
 you explain this ? H. Gravely, that is your 
 name. You are not competent as a witness. 
 The law required some second person to whom 
 the buyer was known as well as to you."
 
 214 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 " It was my son ; he has the same name as 
 myself." 
 
 " Is he here ? Call him." 
 
 " My son has gone to Market Keepham ; but 
 I will send him over to you if you wish." 
 
 " I presume that, like yourself, he could 
 identify the purchaser as Colonel St Evelyn ? " 
 
 " Oh, of course," said the chemist, but rather 
 doubtfully. 
 
 " You would lay yourself open to a very se- 
 rious charge if you sold poison to a person you 
 did not know: I suppose you are aware of that?" 
 
 " Oh, but I knew him. It was in the dusk, 
 but I knew him — a dark, sharp-speaking, mili- 
 tary-looking gentleman, — there was no mistak- 
 ing him." 
 
 " In the dusk, eh ? About what time ? " 
 
 ''About seven, I should say." 
 
 " How did he come ? Eide or drive ? " 
 
 "Neither; he walked. At least I saw no 
 horse or cart at the door." 
 
 "No doubt he walked," said Earswick to 
 himself. "It would attract least attention.
 
 THE CHEMIST OF CLEOBURY. 215 
 
 If he had ridden or driven, there would have 
 been the groom or the horse to hold." 
 
 " He was alone ? " was the detective's next 
 question, addressed to the chemist. 
 
 " I am sure of that ; quite alone." 
 
 ** And do you remember how he was 
 dressed ? " 
 
 "Yes, I think so. The Colonel had on a 
 rather peculiar cloak, made loose. They call 
 them by some Scotch name — macintosh ? " 
 
 " A waterproof, then ? " 
 
 " I don't think so." 
 
 ^' Perhaps it was an ulster ? " 
 
 '' That's Irish." 
 
 " Well, an Inverness ? " 
 
 "That's the name. I remember now. It 
 was made of Scotch plaid, big pattern, yellow- 
 ish, with red lines." 
 
 " Rather staring, in fact." 
 
 " That's what I thought it, and how I remem- 
 ber it so well." 
 
 " And you would know it again ? " 
 
 *' Yes, I could swear to it."
 
 216 BY HOOK OK CROOK. 
 
 '^ And tlie wearer ? " 
 
 " Him too. I should know his voice and his 
 way." 
 
 *'Well, Mr Gravely, I won't conceal from 
 you that what you have told me is of the 
 utmost importance. You may have heard 
 what has happened at the Hall ? " 
 
 " I saw it in the papers. But " a light 
 
 seemed to break in on the chemist suddenly — 
 " you cannot mean to say that the Colonel's 
 suspected ? " 
 
 '' What do you say to this ? " replied Ears- 
 wick sternly, putting his finger on the poison- 
 book. " It's quite incomprehensible to me why 
 you have not come forward before this. You 
 knew as we all did that poor young Sir Carys- 
 fort had been poisoned by arsenic, and yet you 
 have volunteered no information of what you 
 had sold. You will have to explain this, I 
 promise you." 
 
 " I had quite forgotten it, I assure you." 
 
 " That's hard to believe." 
 
 " Well, I won't say that it didn't cross my
 
 THE CHEMIST OP CLEOBURY. 217 
 
 mind ; but dear, dear, was I to go and accuse 
 the Colonel, his own brother-in-law ? Besides, 
 he said he wanted it for his horses — it's entered 
 so there." 
 
 ''You have a confiding disposition, Mr 
 Gravely," said the detective grimly, " and 
 I warn you, you will have to justify all this 
 to the proper authorities. I don't suppose you 
 want to be taken up as an accomplice." 
 
 " Gracious heavens ! don't hint at such a 
 thing." The little chemist was trembling in 
 every limb. 
 
 " Well, it's quite on the cards, and it will all 
 depend on how you conduct yourself." ^ 
 
 " I'm sure I am ready to do anything, every- 
 thing required." 
 
 " It is in the first place essential that you 
 should hold your tongue ; you must preserve 
 the most absolute secrecy about this." 
 
 " I promise, sir — I promise." 
 
 " And you must give up this register to me. 
 There must be no risk of losing it — it is far too 
 important in the case."
 
 218 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 " How about my regular work, sir ? I shall 
 want that ledger." 
 
 '' Open another ; I must have this. Let me 
 see now," and Earswick walked once or twice 
 round the shop. " Is there anything else to be 
 said or done ? No ; I think not. I will not 
 trespass on your time any further, Mr Gravely, 
 except to repeat my cautions. Be circumspect 
 and silent, or you may get into serious trouble." 
 
 With this rather threatening farewell, the 
 detective put the poison register under his arm, 
 and retraced his steps to Cleobury station.
 
 219 
 
 CHAPTEE XX. 
 
 A CLOAK, COAT, OR CAPE. 
 
 One or two doubtful points served to embitter 
 Ears wick's joy as he travelled back to Straddle- 
 thorpe that evening. 
 
 There was first the possibility that some one 
 — the real criminal, and for his own guilty pur- 
 pose — had personated Colonel St Evelyn at 
 Cleobury. 
 
 Was this possible? was it probable? The 
 answer was surely in the negative. 
 
 How could the chemist, Mr Gravely, a 
 neighbour in the county, be mistaken in his 
 man? He had declared that he knew and 
 recognised the Colonel. 
 
 " But not too positively. I fancied I detected
 
 220 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 an accent of doubt in his words. He was a poor 
 creature at best — broke down almost with me. 
 What would he do in the witness-box? Sup- 
 pose he had been wTong after all ? 
 
 ''There is the signature, though. That may 
 help. I must compare it with another, a cer- 
 tainly genuine signature ; I shall be sure to find 
 one among the papers Mr Tinson left. 
 
 "And the description — the signalement — 
 that will be hard to get over. The Inverness 
 cape or cloak was a remarkable object in its 
 way ; I ought to be able to trace that to its 
 rightful owner. 
 
 " On the other hand, there is the ostensible 
 purpose for which the drug was bought — horse 
 medicine. Now I know from Gibbings that the 
 Colonel made up his recipes. Shall I be able 
 to ascertain what these contained? Gribbings 
 promised to let me have some of the stuff. I 
 must, if possible, get one of each kind, and have 
 them analysed. They're bound to tell some 
 story — one way or the other."
 
 A CLOAK, COAT, OR CAPE. 221 
 
 In his eagerness, Earswick almost ran to the 
 library on his return to the Hall. 
 
 To give colour to the detective's occupation, 
 a number of documents — law papers, leases, 
 and so forth — had been left by Mr Tinson. 
 These lay on the library table, where Ears- 
 wick sat and worked when not otherwise 
 employed. 
 
 " If I remember right," the detective said as 
 he seated himself at this table, *' the Colonel 
 signed that surrender of the Doddington lease. 
 I had it in my hands this morning. Ah ! here 
 
 it IS. 
 
 He untied the red tape and opened out the 
 great formal parchment, engrossed in the cus- 
 tomary copperplate. At the end of it was the 
 signature he sought. 
 
 To take the chemist's poison register from 
 his pocket, open it at the suspicious entry, and 
 compare the two signatures, was the work of 
 a moment for the detective. 
 
 " The same ! " he cried — " absolutely and iden-
 
 222 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 tically the same ! There can be little doubt 
 now that it was the Colonel himself who 
 bought the stuff. Some one else might have 
 personated him, but surely no one could have 
 counterfeited his hand. 
 
 " That disposes pretty well of my difficulty 
 as to identity. And I shall still have as a 
 second string the testimony of the cloak, coat, 
 or cape. I must find that cloak, coat, or cape, 
 or at any rate get evidence that the Colonel 
 owned and wore one. 
 
 '' How can I best manage this ? Gibbings ? 
 He would know, of course ; but how am I to ask 
 him about his master's clothes ? It would be 
 most imprudent at this stage. There's Mrs 
 Leleu ; of course I don't want her to know 
 exactly what I'm at, still I ought to be able to 
 get out of her what I want, if I go the right 
 way to work." 
 
 After tea he very adroitly led the conversa- 
 tion in the necessary direction. Mrs Leleu, 
 now that the detective was playing with his 
 cards on the table, was ready enough to talk
 
 A CLOAK, COAT, OR CAPE. 223 
 
 to him on any subject, but especially about 
 the Colonel. 
 
 "Did you see much of him?" asked the 
 detective. 
 
 "More than I cared about. He was always 
 messing about, interfering with other people's 
 work." 
 
 " What ! in the house ? I thought his tastes 
 were mostly outdoor." 
 
 "That of course ; but nothing came amiss to 
 him, if he had a chance of ordering other people 
 about, hectoring here, and bullying there, and 
 poking his nose in everybody's business." 
 
 " I wonder he found time. He looked after 
 the estate, didn't he ? " 
 
 " I believe you. Ask the bailiff, or the 
 farmers, or the labourers. He was always 
 ranging up and down, finding fault, and pre- 
 tending to teach every one his business." 
 
 " I suppose he was fond of exercise." 
 
 "He must have been, or else it was his 
 unquiet spirit, for he never seemed to rest ; 
 out in all weathers too."
 
 224 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 "Ah!" Ears wick saw an opening at last. 
 * ^ I wonder he didn't take cold. You wouldn't 
 have been sorry, I daresay." 
 
 "Him take cold? Never. He's too hard. 
 Besides, he looked after himself too well for 
 that." 
 
 " Wrapped up warm on cold days, eh ? " 
 
 " I should think so. Why, he had coats for all 
 weathers, all thicknesses, all sorts and shapes." 
 
 " A wise man. In a changeable climate like 
 this, the same topcoat don't do for two days 
 running, as I've found before now. I'd like to 
 get a wrinkle from the Colonel." 
 
 " Get Gibbings to show you his wardrobe, 
 then." 
 
 " I'd like to, if I thought it was safe. What 
 I want is something loose to go over another 
 coat — a thing you could throw off and on 
 easily." 
 
 " I've seen the Colonel in something of the 
 sort : what they call an Inverness, I think." 
 
 " Have you, now ? " Earswick tried hard to 
 assume indifference as he drew near the point
 
 A CLOAK, COAT, OR CAPE. 225 
 
 at which he had aimed. " What kind was it ? 
 What stuff ? What colour ? " 
 
 " Oh, I can't tell. Scotch, I should say ; a 
 tartan or a plaid. Kather staring pattern ; drab, 
 or rather yellow, with bright red lines." 
 
 " That would hardly do for me. I should be 
 known by my coat, as I daresay the Colonel 
 was." 
 
 " It's likely enough. He was fond of that 
 coat ; I have seen him in it dozens of times." 
 
 Earswick was delighted. He had come upon 
 just what he wanted. 
 
 " Well, anyway, I'll get Gibbings to show it 
 me, if it's only to get a pattern of the shape." 
 
 " I wouldn't do anything of the kind, if I 
 were you. He'd only suspect something." 
 
 " Perhaps you are right. I'd best leave it 
 and him alone," said the detective ; and soon 
 after he bade the housekeeper good night. 
 
 But he had no intention of dropping his 
 friend Gibbings, and relying upon his own 
 acumen and discretion, trusted still to turn him 
 to profitable account. 
 
 VOL. I. P
 
 226 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 They did not meet again till next morning, 
 when Earswick found him as usual at the stables. 
 
 "You promised yesterday to let me have 
 some of your stable specifics — the Colonel's 
 prescriptions I mean," said the detective, after 
 he had inquired in due form about the sick 
 horse, and had examined the other occupants 
 of the stalls. 
 
 "Right you are. But why do you want 
 them ? " 
 
 " I still do a little veterinary work at odd 
 times, and I'm always willing to learn. Now if 
 these medicines are worth anything " 
 
 " There's nothing like them, ta.ke my word 
 for that. I've tried them this many a year, 
 and the Colonel, he believes in them too." 
 
 " Perhaps some day he'll give me the receipts 
 himself." 
 
 " I doubt that ; he keeps them even from me. 
 But don't let that put you out. You can 
 always have what you want if you write me 
 a line." 
 
 " You shan't lose by it."
 
 A CLOAK, COAT, OE CAPE. 227 
 
 " Oh, come ! Between friends, you know." 
 
 " They will be worth money to me, and you 
 ought to have your share. Why, if I were you 
 I'd turn a pretty penny. Get the Colonel to 
 supply the goods and you sell them." 
 
 " I don't think I'll do that. He might not 
 like it, and I'd be sorry to vex him. I don't 
 mind obliging you ; that's another pair of shoes." 
 
 " Well, when can I have them ? " 
 
 " Why, now if you choose. There's only half- 
 a-dozen of them. Come this way, into the 
 harness-room." 
 
 " Here you are," went on Gibbings, taking 
 down a bottle or two and some tin boxes. 
 
 " These are the cordial balls ; I never knew 
 their equal after a hard day's hunting. These 
 are the cough balls, and this embrocation never 
 fails. There's some of the eye -water, some 
 fever powders, and some for worms. Now you 
 are fitted out with the whole biling." 
 
 Ears wick was profuse in his thanks. 
 
 " I tell you what it is, Mr Gibbings, you are 
 a real downright trump ; if there's anything I
 
 228 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 can do for you just say the word. And look 
 here, it's my turn to stand treat. Shall we 
 meet again at the * Cow and Pail ' ? " 
 
 " I'm your man. But it must be late ; I've 
 got enough to keep me busy till night." 
 
 So had Earswick. Eeturning to the house 
 with his medicines, he regained his room, and 
 there made the whole into a safe and con- 
 venient parcel. Then, without another word to 
 a soul in the Hall, took the next train from 
 Straddlethorpe into Market Reepham. 
 
 Arrived at the county town, he went to a quiet 
 public not far from the police station, and sent 
 a message round to the chief constable. 
 
 Captain Bracebridge came at once to hear 
 what his subordinate had to say. 
 
 '' I thought it better, sir, to report in person," 
 said Earswick. " I have come upon some im- 
 portant facts, as I think you will agree." 
 
 And then the detective detailed the steps he 
 had taken, and the success that had attended 
 them. 
 
 " You are on the right line, I haven't a doubt
 
 A CLOAK, COAT, OH CAPE. 229 
 
 of that. And the case looks blacker than ever 
 against the Colonel." 
 
 " Is the evidence strong enough to convict, 
 sir ? " 
 
 "It's purely circumstantial, of course, and 
 juries are difficult to deal with ; but when you 
 take the whole of the facts together, I don't see 
 how any sensible man could hesitate." 
 
 " There's still the question of the cloak. If 
 I can lay my hands on that, and the chemist 
 identifies it, we shall have tangible corroboration 
 on the point of identity." 
 
 " I quite agree with you, Earswick. You 
 must lay your hands on that Inverness." 
 
 " I will have it, right or wrong. Gibbings 
 shall give it me, or I will take it." 
 
 " If the worst comes to the worst, we will get 
 a search-warrant." 
 
 " Better try no extreme measures sir, until 
 fair ones have failed. I am to meet Gibbings 
 to-night ; perhaps I shall get the better of him, 
 although he has got a hard head." 
 
 " Do you call those fair means?" said the chief
 
 230 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 constable, laughing. '^ Fair or foul you should 
 say." 
 
 "Well, sir, we police must not be too par- 
 ticular. You tell me to get the cloak, and I 
 must obey your orders." 
 
 "You are a promising, painstaking young 
 officer, Earswick, and I am satisfied with you. 
 Have you anything else to say ? " 
 
 '^ Only about these medicines. I've brought 
 them over with me ; they ought to be analysed." 
 
 " Quite right. It shall be done. We'll send 
 them up to town. Although the evidence they 
 supply will not serve us, unless in the negative 
 way." 
 
 *' I do not quite follow you, sir." 
 
 " Why, you see, they will either be found to 
 contain arsenic, or they won't. If they do, then 
 there is the explanation of the purchase and use 
 of the poison." 
 
 *' Of course ; I understand. While if they 
 don't " 
 
 "The arsenic was bought for some other 
 purpose."
 
 A CLOAK, COAT, OR CAPE. 231 
 
 " Excellently reasoned, sir." 
 
 **But the evidence, if it is that way, is only 
 negative at best." 
 
 "Yes, sir; but, as you have said, when taken 
 in connection with all the other facts " 
 
 " It will weigh with the jury, there's no doubt 
 of that. So don't be cast down, but go on as 
 you have begun. Ears wick ; you may hit on 
 still more." 
 
 And with this the chief and his lieutenant 
 separated, Earswick returning without delay to 
 the Hall.
 
 232 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 THE CASE IS CLEAR. 
 
 The bar parlour of the " Cow and Pail " was a 
 snug little place, to whicli Mr Gibbings, as one 
 of the upper servants at the Hall, was always 
 welcome. His friend Mr Quelch was equally 
 welcome, more especially as he gave a liberal 
 order for drink. 
 
 " What's your weakness, Mr Gibbings ? " 
 asked the detective. " Beer sits cold on the 
 stomach this time of night. Shall we say whisky 
 hot, or rum ?" 
 
 " There's nothing like old Jamaica if you get 
 it sound. 'Tain't bad here, although it might be 
 older. They spoiled us for rum in the Crimea." 
 
 " You were there, were you ? "
 
 THE CASE IS CLEAR. 233 
 
 "At the end of the siege, yes — before we 
 went to the ' Shiny.' " 
 
 *^' Shiny'?" 
 
 " Yes, the * Shiny East ' : that's our soldier's 
 name for India." 
 
 " Was the Colonel in the Crimea too ? " 
 
 " He was that. I went to him there as bat- 
 man. He picked me out, as I think 1 told 
 you, chiefly, I believe, because we were much 
 of a size." 
 
 ''You and the Colonel? What would that 
 matter ? " 
 
 " A good deal to both of us. You see I could 
 wear his old things ; that saved his pocket, and 
 I got the clothes." 
 
 " Economical that. And does the arrange- 
 ment still continue ? " 
 
 A new feature was suddenly introduced into 
 the inquiry. For the first time it occurred to 
 Earswick that Gibbings might have personated 
 the Colonel. What if the master had sent his 
 man to Cleobury ? The detective made a note 
 of this new suspicion, the effect of which was
 
 234 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 to include Gibbings as an accessory, and to call 
 for special observation of the servant. 
 
 " Well, yes, in a way : althougb nowadays 
 I get a couple of new suits a-year, I still have 
 the pick of what the Colonel casts off, — not that 
 I want them much now." 
 
 ** A nice little perquisite all the same. Any- 
 thing from a good tailor is worth money. I 
 suppose you know that." 
 
 Gibbings winked. 
 
 " Next time you come in for a haul you might 
 let me know," said the detective. " I'm obliged 
 to dress smart for Lincoln's Inn, and I can't 
 afford to go to the West End." 
 
 ''Perhaps we can deal. Is there anything 
 particular you want ? " 
 
 " Well, I'd be glad of a good topcoat against 
 winter, if you could help me to such a thing." 
 
 " What kind ? Black cloth ? " 
 
 " No ; something loose that I could throw over 
 another coat and take off when I get to the 
 office. It's precious cold, I tell you, on Novem- 
 ber mornings. You try walking from Camden
 
 THE CASE IS CLEAR. 235 
 
 Town to Lincoln's Inn about daylight in winter 
 time." 
 
 " Well, I'll remember you next time tlie 
 Colonel overhauls his kit." 
 
 " There's nothing you can think of just now ? 
 I have to look ahead, you know." 
 
 Earswick waited anxiously for the answer to 
 a question that was more important than it 
 seemed. 
 
 " Well, there's an old Inverness the Colonel's 
 very fond of ; he's had a good deal of wear out 
 of it, and it ought to be coming my way soon." 
 
 " Warm, is it, and decent-looking ? " 
 
 " It's a first-class article. A little loud, per- 
 
 « 
 
 haps, but warranted to keep out the cold." 
 
 " Can I see it ? " 
 
 " I daresay, if I can lay my hands on it. 
 That reminds me, I haven't seen it myself very 
 lately." 
 
 " Perhaps the Colonel's got it with him." 
 
 " Not he. I know what he took, for I packed 
 his things. No, it's somewhere in his dressing- 
 room."
 
 236 BY HOOK OE CROOK. 
 
 " Well, if you think of it — only don't put 
 yourself out of tlie way," said Earswick, secretly 
 well satisfied with what he heard. 
 
 But he made up his mind to know more about 
 that cloak ; he would find out for himself, that 
 very night if possible. Why should he not pay 
 a visit to the Colonel's dressing-room ? Mrs 
 Leleu might help him here. The only point 
 was to elude Gibbings, and this would probably 
 be easy. Gibbings himself seemed likely to 
 make it so. 
 
 As the evening wore on it was evident that 
 the veteran could not resist the fascinations of his 
 favourite spirit. He might have been weaned on 
 ration rum, as he himself confessed to his enter- 
 tainer after the fifth tumbler hot ; and although 
 as seasoned as such a veteran soldier should be, 
 it was clear as bedtime approached that he had 
 had his allowance and something more. 
 
 "I'm fit for picket," he hiccupped as he 
 stood with difiiculty on his feet, " but not for 
 guard. Hope they won't nab me at the gate as 
 I pass in."
 
 THE CASE IS CLEAR, 237 
 
 His mind unhinged was 'wandering back to 
 barrack-days. 
 
 ^'It's not my first cbalk. They'd stop my 
 passes and give me pack-drill. I think I'll 
 stay absent." . 
 
 "No, no," said Earswick, taking him by 
 the arm. "Ill see you safe home to the 
 Hall." 
 
 " Hall ? " repeated Gibbings, still bewildered. 
 " The Hall ? Why, of course ; I forgot. They 
 can't make me a defaulter. ' I care for nobody,' " 
 he sang it with maudliu jollity, " ' no, not I ; and 
 nobody cares for me.' " 
 
 " Well, come along ; it's getting late," and 
 Earswick helped his companion into the fresh 
 air, the effect of which was to increase rather 
 than diminish his intoxication. 
 
 However, with a little trouble, Gibbings was 
 got to the Hall, where Earswick, the butler as- 
 sisting, put him to bed. 
 
 It was still comparatively early, and the 
 detective found Mrs Leleu still up in the 
 housekeeper's room.
 
 238 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 " I want to go to the Colonel's room — his 
 dressing-room I mean." 
 
 " What, at this time of night ! It would look 
 odd. Suppose Gibbings " 
 
 " Gibbings is in bed ; I have just put him 
 there." 
 
 *^ Sober?" 
 
 "Well, we won't say too much about that. 
 Anyway, he won't interfere." 
 
 '^ What are you going to do ? " 
 
 " Overhaul the Colonel's wardrobe. I want 
 to see that coat, the one you were talking 
 about yesterday." 
 
 " Hasn't he got it with him abroad ? " 
 
 " Gibbings said not. But come along, and 
 bring your keys ; the wardrobes may be locked." 
 
 " I have duplicates if they are," said the house- 
 keeper, as she provided herself with a key-basket 
 and led the way up-stairs. 
 
 The dressing-room, which communicated with 
 one of the best bedrooms in the house — that, in 
 fact, to which the St Evelyns moved on their 
 second day at the Hall — looked a little deserted,
 
 THE CASE IS CLEAR. 239 
 
 as was natural in its occupiers absence. All 
 the dressing appliances had been put away, 
 neat curtains concealed the boot -rack, there 
 were no clothes about, no dressing - gown, no 
 greatcoats hanging behind the doors. Gib- 
 bings, who personally valeted the Colonel, was 
 of an orderly methodical nature, and he took 
 a pride in the tidiness of his master's room. 
 
 Earswick looked round, noting the various 
 receptacles for clothes. There was a ''hang- 
 ing " cupboard, a double- winged wardrobe, and 
 two chests of drawers. He tried the doors of 
 the wardrobe and all the drawers ; nothing 
 was locked except the cupboard, but the key 
 was in the door. 
 
 " Can I help ? " asked Mrs Leleu, as she 
 lighted the candles on the dressing-room table. 
 
 " Much obliged, but I think not. I like to 
 make my searches myself; I am certain then 
 that nothing's been missed," — and the police 
 officer proceeded to carry out his investiga- 
 tion in a regular matter-of-fact fashion. 
 
 He inspected every drawer in turn, exam-
 
 240 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 ining the contents with, deft nimble fingers 
 like a custom-house searcher. He opened the 
 cupboard and brought a candle to bear on 
 everything that hung therein. He did the 
 same with the wardrobe, and made sure by 
 feeling with his hands that nothing escaped 
 him. 
 
 Less than half an hour sufficed to satisfy him 
 of the fruitlessness of his search. There was 
 no Inverness cape of the kind he wanted 
 amongst the Colonel's effects. 
 
 " It isn't here," he said to Mrs Leleu. " Is 
 there nowhere else I can look ? " 
 
 "Well, there's madam's room — the bedroom, 
 you know. But I don't see how it could get 
 in there." 
 
 '^ I had better look," said the detective. " We 
 mustn't do things by halves." 
 
 This second investigation was no more suc- 
 cessful than the first. 
 
 " I can't think what's come of it," said Mrs 
 Leleu. ' ' There's the gun-room, the study, and 
 the hat-stand in the hall ; it might be left
 
 THE CASE IS CLEAR. 241 
 
 hanging there, only I think I should have 
 noticed it." 
 
 "We will go down-stairs and see for our- 
 selves," said Earswick, hoping in his heart that 
 the cloak might not turn up at all. 
 
 Nor did it. There was no trace of it any- 
 where in the house, and Earswick, remember- 
 ing Gibbings's assurance that the Colonel had 
 not taken it away with him, was brought 
 naturally to a positive conclusion that it had 
 disappeared. 
 
 " I'm glad of it," he said to himself as he 
 went up-stairs to his room. '* It's just as it 
 ought to be. Of course he has made away 
 with the cloak ; to have left it amongst his 
 things would have been to assist identification. 
 
 " The case is pretty well complete, I think, 
 now. I doubt whether I can do much more 
 here, but I had better stay till I get my 
 orders from the chief." 
 
 With that he turned in, to sleep the sound 
 satisfied sleep of the man who has done his 
 duty and met with his reward. 
 
 VOL. L Q
 
 242 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 He was as usual early next morning ; the 
 habit had grown upon him since he had joined 
 the force, and he was always up betimes, even 
 when he had no special object to gain. 
 
 It was so this morning, and after dressing 
 leisurely he strolled down-stairs, hardly knowing 
 what to do with himself till breakfast-time. 
 
 A walk in the park promised to be pleasant, 
 but on his way to the hall door he passed the 
 Colon el's study. 
 
 ««I might have another look through his 
 room. I was too much excited last time to 
 explore it completely. Who knows but what 
 I might come upon some more evidence ! Gib- 
 bings is not likely to interrupt me ; he cannot 
 have slept off his debauch quite yet. What a 
 head he'll have ! " 
 
 Earswick entered the room, and after look- 
 ing round to refresh his memory with its con- 
 tents, proceeded to examine the contents of the 
 drawers, to overhaul the cupboards of the book- 
 case, and handle afresh all the books and papers 
 about.
 
 THE CASE IS CLEAR. 243 
 
 He was so busily engaged with his task that 
 the door opened and some one entered before 
 he was aware of it. It was Gibbings, whose 
 voice, rather brusque and menacing, caused 
 him to turn. 
 
 " Holloa I my fine fellow, what are you doing 
 here ? " 
 
 "Why, Mr Gibbings, is that you?" The 
 detective was slightly disconcerted, and found 
 it difficult to improvise a plausible excuse. 
 
 " Did Mr Tinson tell you to take stock of 
 the Colonel's papers ? " asked Gibbings, sarcas- 
 tically. 
 
 " Not exactly," stammered Earswick. '' I was 
 only looking for something I had missed." 
 
 " In here ? " asked Gibbings, sharply. " Then 
 you have been in here before? I thought as 
 much. You came here to spy and pry, you 
 mean hound." 
 
 " Fair and softly, Mr Gibbings ; no hard 
 names." 
 
 Earswick was more and more disconcerted. 
 It took him quite aback to find the old soldier
 
 244 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 thoroughly alert and sensible in spite of his 
 previous night's potations. 
 
 ''Who are you ? I was an ass to trust you 
 without knowing more about you. Do you 
 belong to the police ? " 
 
 " I have told you who I am." 
 
 " Tinson's clerk ? That don't gammon me ; 
 I know better. You stole a march on me last 
 night, I couldn't for the life of me tell why, but 
 I know now I find you here ; it was you who 
 turned over my master's things last night." 
 
 "I, Mr Gibbings ! " protested Ears wick. 
 "What can you mean?" 
 
 " I mean that some strange hand has been 
 meddling and muddling in the Colonel's cup- 
 boards and drawers. Things are not as I left 
 them, I could swear to that." 
 
 '' Have you been to the Colonel's room, then, 
 this morning ? " 
 
 " I have — where you were last night. Don't 
 deny it ; I shan't believe you." 
 
 " Upon my word, Mr Gibbings, you are behav- 
 ing very strangely. I am here on business."
 
 THE CASE IS CLEAR. 245 
 
 " Dirty detective business. You'd better 
 clear out. Go back to where you came from 
 before I make you." 
 
 Gibbings looked threatening. 
 
 " I can take care of myself," replied Earswick, 
 stoutly. "If I couldn't, I could appeal to Lady 
 Lezaire." 
 
 " Of course she'd take your part. I know 
 now who set you on. She hates my master, 
 and would do all she could to ruin him." 
 
 " In what way ? " asked Earswick, innocently. 
 
 " Yah ! you know. You can't humbug me. 
 You go your way and let me go mine. And 
 see here, your way don't lie this way, so qjear 
 out of this double quick, and don't let me catch 
 you in this room again." 
 
 Gibbings showed Earswick the door, and 
 following him out, locked it. 
 
 " Any one that wants to go in there will have 
 to come to me for the key. Don't you try, 
 neither here nor up-stairs." 
 
 Had this stormy rencontre occurred even the 
 day before, Earswick would have been greatly
 
 246 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 disappointed and put out ; but, fortunately for 
 his inquiry, he had found out all he wanted be- 
 fore Gibbings cut up rough. 
 
 Fortified with this consoling reflection, he 
 again went over to Market Eeepham and told 
 the chief constable what had occurred. 
 
 "No need to worry more," said Captain 
 Bracebridge. "We have got him in a cleft 
 stick now. I shall apply for a warrant. The 
 case is clear."
 
 247 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 AT DIEPPE. 
 
 The season begins early at French watering- 
 places ; by the end of June it is in full swing, 
 and in the dog-days it is at its height. In the 
 early autumn, when our home resorts are most 
 crowded, the season is already declining in 
 France. 
 
 People who love their comfort prefer the 
 early quiet time before the rush — before famine 
 prices set in, and when accommodation is still 
 obtainable in hotels, and private houses at com- 
 paratively reasonable rates. 
 
 No one knew this better than Colonel St 
 Evelyn, who in his bachelor days had tried 
 all the watering-places on the Normandy coast
 
 248 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 in turn. It was at Trouville, as we have seen, 
 that he won his bride and established himself 
 in the good graces of the Lezaires. Trouville, 
 always a favourite place, had been doubly dear 
 to him since then, and he would have gladly 
 returned there now until the time was ripe 
 for his return to the Hall. 
 
 But tender-hearted Mrs St Evelyn could not 
 bear to face the place again. To her its asso- 
 ciations were far too painful ; her loss was too 
 recent ; she could not forget the great gap made 
 in the little family circle since last they were 
 there. 
 
 Trouville was impossible, the Colonel readily 
 admitted that. EacheFs will was law to him, 
 as he told her — doubly so in such a matter as 
 this. The sorrow with which she mourned her 
 poor young brother was so deep-seated and 
 sincere, that she deserved to be spared any 
 additional pang. 
 
 So they went to Dieppe instead of Trouville, 
 and the Colonel said he liked it better. They 
 were comfortably housed in the Hotel Beau Ei-
 
 AT DIEPPE. 249 
 
 vage, facing the green lawn that stretched down 
 to the beach, and in full view of the Channel. 
 
 There had been but little reference between 
 husband and wife to the late terrible catastrophe 
 at the Hall. Probable causes had, of course, 
 been discussed ; but Eachel, obedient and easily 
 impressed, had quickly accepted the Colonel's 
 interpretation. He had insisted, with a vehe- 
 mence which was quite as good as logic to her, 
 that Sir Carysfort's death could not possibly be 
 attributed to anything but his own impru- 
 dence ; it was nonsense, wicked nonsense, to talk 
 of poison. The verdict of the coroner's jury 
 was preposterous and absurd. A sweet simple- 
 minded woman, slow to think evil of any one 
 in the world, Mrs St Evelyn was ready enough 
 to accept this explanation. Any other, any 
 that traced the death to some guilty cause, 
 would have been inexpressibly repugnant to 
 her, and would have increased her anguish a 
 thousand-fold. 
 
 It was a very peaceful, uneventful, almost 
 monotonous life they led, conforming, out-
 
 250 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 wardly at least, to the ways of the place ; 
 taking their meals at the table d'hdte hour, 
 lounging lazily upon the shingle under their 
 high-thatched chairs, or listening to the music 
 of the band. A happy family party, a delight- 
 ful menage, as it seemed to the French visitors : 
 the father's distinguished military air, the grace- 
 ful childlike mother, the pretty babies, with 
 their sturdy English bonne. 
 
 Colonel St Evelyn seldom left his wife's side, 
 except to take the long walks essential to a man 
 of his active habits. He was with her now, 
 smoking the inevitable cheroot, and skimming 
 the day's * Figaro,' which had just come down 
 from Paris, when his eye fell upon two persons 
 approaching. 
 
 *' New arrivals," he observed carelessly. 
 " Compatriots, seemingly. The place is filling 
 fast, Kachel." 
 
 '' Where are they ? I don't see them." 
 
 "Why, it's " He checked himself sud- 
 denly, adding under his breath as he rose from 
 his seat, " What on earth brings him here ? "
 
 AT DIEPPE. 251 
 
 " Who is it ? Any one you know ? " went on 
 Eachel. 
 
 " Oh no, dear, nothing of the sort. I am 
 only going to take a turn. I shall find you 
 here, I suppose ? " 
 
 *'Yes, I think so, unless you are very long. 
 But we shall go straight back to the hotel." 
 
 Colonel St Evelyn walked towards the per- 
 sons he had noticed. 
 
 "Surely I am not mistaken," he said, with 
 outstretched hands. "It is Captain Brace- 
 bridge." 
 
 The chief constable's response was cold and 
 repellent. • 
 
 "Yes, Colonel St Evelyn, I am Captain 
 Bracebridge. I have come to Dieppe to 
 take " 
 
 " To take a holiday, I presume. Well, you 
 deserve it, more than most men." 
 
 "Mine is no holiday trip. I'd rather have 
 come on any other." 
 
 "Indeed? What " 
 
 " Colonel St Evelyn," went on the chief con-
 
 252 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 stable, sternly, " it is my painful duty to inform 
 you that I hold a warrant for your arrest." 
 
 "Good God! On what charge ? You must be 
 mad. Have a care how you exceed your powers." 
 
 "I am perfectly in form. The warrant is 
 regular, and I am accompanied by this gentle- 
 man " — he pointed to a third person, who stood 
 behind with Earswick — "by the police com- 
 missary of Dieppe." 
 
 " I protest. There is some terrible mistake. 
 On what charge do you presume to interfere 
 with me ? " 
 
 '' Before I tell you, it is my duty to warn you 
 that anything you may say " 
 
 "Yes, yes, I know the formula. Let us take 
 it as said. What is the charge ? Quick ! Let 
 me know the worst." 
 
 " You are accused of the murder of your 
 brother-in-law. Sir Carysfort Lezaire." 
 
 " That woman ! Has she dared to let her 
 enmity, her hatred, reach such lengths as this ? " 
 cried Colonel St Evelyn, his dark cheek mant- 
 ling with mingled shame and rage.
 
 AT DIEPPE. 253 
 
 "I must again remind you, Colonel St 
 Evelyn, to be careful what you say. Eemember 
 you are in custody." 
 
 " What are you going to do with me ? My 
 wife is here ; she must not know, at least not 
 for the present." 
 
 " Will you surrender ? will you promise to go 
 with us quietly ? " 
 
 ** Yes ; but where ? To England ? " 
 
 " To England ; the steamer starts in less than 
 an hour." 
 
 ^'What if I refuse? We are not in Ed gland 
 now, remember." 
 
 " No, but the law of extradition runs here. 
 Unless you accept my terms unhesitatingly and 
 at once, I must hand you over to this gentle- 
 man " — pointing to the French official — " who 
 will lodge you in the local jail. You will have 
 to wait there until we can appear before Sijuge 
 d'instruction, who on mj^ application will hand 
 you over to us. I shall then handcuff you, 
 and carry you back a close prisoner." 
 
 " The alternative is too terrible, Captain
 
 254 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 Bracebridge ; you are too strong, I submit. 
 My poor Kachel ! what will become of ber ? 
 She must be told ; at least some excuse must 
 be made for my sudden departure. Captain 
 Bracebridge, help me ! You are a married 
 man, you have children, help me. I am think- 
 ing now not of myself, but of her." 
 
 " I cannot let you out of my sight. The 
 charge is too grave, the risks too great." 
 
 " You need not. Mrs St Evelyn is there, not 
 a ' dozen yards off. Let me go to her. I will 
 say I am summoned suddenly to England." 
 
 Captain Bracebridge hesitated, then shook 
 his head. 
 
 "Do not refuse me this, I implore you. 
 Captain Bracebridge. You are, like myself, an 
 old soldier ; we have both borne the Queen's 
 commission. Let me entreat you " 
 
 " You will make no attempt to escape ? " 
 asked the chief constable, beginning to relent. 
 
 " I give you my word of honour, as an officer 
 and a gentleman." 
 
 Captain Bracebridge looked at him, as though
 
 AT DIEPPE. 255 
 
 surprised that a man over whom such a terrible 
 charge impended should presume to use these 
 words. 
 
 " Well, I will trust you, Colonel St Evelyn, 
 although I may be exceeding my duty. If you 
 play me false — excuse my saying it — I shall 
 have to appeal to force. The local authorities," 
 he again pointed to the commissary, " will sup- 
 port me." 
 
 " There is nothing to fear," said the Colonel, 
 as he walked away to where his wife still sat, 
 unconscious of the grave trouble that had be- 
 fallen her husband. 
 
 " My dear," he began, " you must prepare /or 
 a surprise." 
 
 *^ Ferdinand, what has happened ? There 
 is something wrong. I see it in your face. 
 Mamma ? " 
 
 ''No, no; Lady Lezaire is quite well. But 
 we are wanted back. There are some import- 
 ant matters, with regard to the succession — 
 and others — that must be attended to at once. 
 We must go back to England."
 
 256 BY HOOK OR CEOOK. 
 
 " I am quite ready, dear. Only, of course, it 
 will take us some days to prepare." 
 
 " Yes ; and that's why I thought, perhaps, 
 I had better go on ahead — you would not 
 mind ? " he asked, anxiously. 
 
 " Oh no. I shan't like it, of course, without 
 you. But I can do everything, and there are 
 the servants. But is there such hurry ? When 
 would you start ? " 
 
 " To-day, I think. The mail goes this after- 
 noon. I am anxious there should be no unnec- 
 essary delay. The lawyers are very urgent." 
 
 *' Is it Mr Tinson ? Surely he might have 
 written." 
 
 *' Mr Tinson, yes ; and your mother, I fear. 
 Lady Lezaire is making difficulties. In your 
 interests, and those of our dear children " 
 
 " Oh, Ferdinand, how good you are ! Always 
 thinking of us," said the sweet little wife, 
 with tears of gratitude filling her soft eyes. 
 
 " I am ashamed to leave you in the lurch 
 like this — to give you so much trouble, dear- 
 est "
 
 AT DIEPPE. 257 
 
 "Never mind me, Ferdinand. I can do 
 everything, I daresay," said Mrs St Evelyn. 
 '' But you are not going yet ? " she went on 
 with a tender desire to procrastinate, seeing her 
 husband turn away. 
 
 "As far as the hotel. I must put a few 
 things together ; a dressing-bag will do." 
 
 "Let me go and help you, Ferdinand. I 
 will see to it all." 
 
 Colonel St Evelyn would not suffer his wife 
 to worry herself, he said. It was no trouble : 
 an old soldier ought to be able to do his own 
 packing. 
 
 "And I'll be back directly — to say good-hye," 
 he added cheerily as he walked off, still closely 
 escorted by his friends. 
 
 They were more than usually affectionate — 
 his adieux. Mrs St Evelyn, easily moved and 
 emotional, wondered at, while she was grateful 
 for, his fond looks, and tender, lingering fare- 
 well. She was to join him again within a few 
 short days — why this impressive leave-taking ? 
 
 There were tears in her eyes and a weight 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 258 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 at her heart when he was gone ; the gloom 
 and sadness of approaching evil filled her with 
 vague forebodings and nameless fears. 
 
 As for St Evelyn, he carried his head high, 
 walking erect and unabashed between his cap- 
 tors, the two officers of the law, whom the 
 uninitiated might easily have taken for two 
 particularly attentive familiar friends. 
 
 Who shall say what grievous thoughts occu- 
 pied and oppressed him as he made the dreary 
 journey from Dieppe to Market Eeepham, from 
 the careless freedom of the gay French watering- 
 place to captivity within the dark and narrow 
 limits of the county jail ?
 
 259 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 ON THE TRIAL SIDE. 
 
 The news of Colonel St Evelyn's arrest spread 
 like wildfire through the county. It was the 
 talk of every tongue ; common gossip every- 
 where. But no one exactly knew how or why 
 he had been taken. • 
 
 Only a paragraph in the local prints gave 
 a brief account of the capture ; a mysterious 
 allusion was made to the important clues that 
 had come into the hands of the police, and 
 much vague praise was accorded to Mr Ears- 
 wick, of whom the county was told to be proud, 
 as a new and shining light among detectives. 
 
 But there was the undoubted fact : the 
 Colonel was in jail. Lord Prudhames had not
 
 260 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 hesitated to commit his fellow- justice of the 
 peace. There must be sufficient evidence, of 
 course ; the case must be perfectly clear, or 
 bail would not have been refused. 
 
 "Dear heart alive! it's not possible; it 
 can't be true," said Major Ruddock, the worthy 
 veteran who owed his position as governor of 
 the jail to this very person whom the chief 
 constable brought there, a prisoner, in the dead 
 of night. 
 
 " Read your warrant, Major Ruddock. Lord 
 Prudhames granted it. I give the Colonel's 
 body into your safe-keeping. Remember, you 
 will be responsible for him." 
 
 " I need no one to teach me my duty, Cap- 
 tain Bracebridge," replied the jail official, 
 tartly. Major Ruddock was a hard-featured, 
 middle-aged man, with iron-grey moustaches 
 cut short and standing out like stiff quills, a 
 brusque manner, and a grating voice. He had 
 risen from the ranks of the Royal Rangers, and 
 showed it every inch. 
 
 "It's all a mistake, of course, Ruddock,"
 
 ON THE TRIAL SIDE. 261 
 
 the Colonel said pleasantly, as they stood in- 
 side the prison lodge, while the governor 
 signed the receipt for the person of his friend 
 and patron. 
 
 The chief constable held up a finger menac- 
 ingly. " Be careful what you say, Colonel 
 St Evelyn." 
 
 " There, take your receipt," said the governor, 
 interposing abruptly. "I daresay, sir" — this 
 to the Colonel — "you'll be glad to get to bed." 
 
 " We've been travelling since three, when we 
 left Dieppe, and now it must be " 
 
 *'Past eleven," said the governor. "Good 
 night; there's no need to detain you pqlice. 
 I've seen enough of you. I wasn't bound to 
 open to you at all after hours." 
 
 " I'm glad you did, Euddock, or I should 
 have gone to the police lock-up," laughed the 
 prisoner. " A poor place. I'd much rather be 
 your guest." 
 
 " Oh, Colonel, I'd give you the best my 
 
 house contains, but " he hesitated — " the 
 
 rules ; I must adhere to the rules."
 
 262 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 *' I would not ask you to break them, you 
 may be sure," said St Evelyn. "Where are 
 you going to lodge me ? " 
 
 ''On the trial side. In one of the large 
 cells " 
 
 St Evelyn shuddered, but recovering quickly, 
 cried — 
 
 " I know. IVe often had worse quarters in 
 barracks when I was a jolly sub. What's the 
 delay ? Let's get on there ; I want to turn in." 
 
 Certain formalities had to be observed. 
 The prisoner was obliged to give up his watch, 
 his rings, his money, his penknife even ; the 
 rules were read to him, and his description 
 taken : his name, age, quality, and distinctive 
 marks. 
 
 " The doctor ought to see you, I suppose, sir ; 
 but it's late, and he'll have gone to bed." 
 
 " Nonsense, Euddock 1 I'm in excellent health. 
 Only give me a mouthful of food and let me 
 turn in." 
 
 The governor led the way through the dark 
 and narrow entrance of the jail ; a medieval
 
 ON THE TRIAL SIDE. 263 
 
 construction, with ponderous gates that closed 
 with a clang, and were secured by vast 
 bolts and massive chains. The interior, dimly 
 lighted, was still as death, only broken by the 
 voice of the night-watchman in slippers, chal- 
 lenging them in low sepulchral tones. Then 
 they reached the " location " of newly arrived 
 prisoners, his lodging for the night — spacious 
 enough as a cell, but as a bedroom, compared 
 with those of the Hall or hotel, mean and 
 meagre at best. A stone floor, an iron bedstead 
 fastened into the whitewashed wall, a shelf-like 
 table under the gas light, a three-legged stool, 
 a few tin utensils, and that was all. • 
 
 "Eough, but at any rate clean. I've been 
 worse ofi" in old campaigning days — eh, Kud- 
 dock? And so have you." 
 
 " Dear heart ! Colonel, the pity of it. What 
 can I say ? What can I do ? " 
 
 " Get me some bread and cheese, or cold 
 meat, and a glass of beer — I am allowed one 
 pint, you know, by the regulations." 
 
 " You shall have the best that's in my larder,
 
 ^64 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 Colonel. ril fetch it myself." and the stanch 
 old soldier hurried away, to return presently 
 with the materials of a substantial repast. 
 
 He waited while the Colonel, with excellent 
 appetite, ate his supper. Then he called in the 
 night-watchman to clear away and make the 
 prisoner's bed. 
 
 " Is there anything more I can do now — any 
 orders for the morning, sir ? " 
 
 " I should like Cibbings sent for. You know 
 my man — he was in the Kangers with us." 
 
 " Gribbings of letter F Company ? Of course 
 I know him. I will send a messenger at un- 
 locking by the early train. And breakfast ? 
 The rules say 6.30." 
 
 "After to-morrow I'll abide by the rules. 
 But don't wake me in the morning, please, till 
 I ring." The Colonel pointed with a smile to 
 the bell-handle with which the cell was duly 
 provided, according to Act of Parliament. 
 
 Colonel St Evelyn, in spite of the awful 
 charge which hung over him, slept soundly that 
 night ; slept late, moreover, through the din of .
 
 ON THE TRIAL SIDE. 265 
 
 the awakening jail ; through the cell visitation, 
 the unlocking of doors, the morning muster, the 
 serving of food ; he was dimly conscious of a 
 sound of scrubbing and washing, and, as he 
 lay in his narrow bunk between sleeping and 
 waking, fancied himself once more in the 
 cabin of a troop-ship, whilst they holystoned 
 the deck overhead. 
 
 The bright sunlight streaming through the 
 small barred window presently aroused him to 
 the reality of his position. He sprang from the 
 bed and turned the bell-handle. 
 
 In reply, the governor and Gibbings appeared 
 together. 
 
 " How did you sleep, sir ? " asked the 
 governor. "It's long past nine." 
 
 " Like a top. I should be glad of some food 
 soon, Kuddock." 
 
 " I'll see to it, sir, while Gibbings helps you 
 to dress," and Major Kuddock withdrew. 
 
 " Well, Gibbings," continued the Colonel ; 
 " you didn't expect to see me here ? " 
 
 " I was afraid they meant mischief, sir ;
 
 266 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 but I never thouglit it would go so far as 
 this." 
 
 "Why, what do you mean, man? Did any- 
 thing lead you to suppose I was suspected ? If 
 so, you should have let me know." 
 
 *' I only found out their dirty tricks a day 
 or two back. There's been a fellow spying and 
 prying at the Hall these weeks past." 
 
 "Ah, a detective, I suppose : set on by Lady 
 Lezaire." 
 
 " I can't be sure, sir, but I'm afraid that's it. 
 My lady has got a kink in her brain, and lays 
 the blame for everything on you." 
 
 " She abhors, detests me, I know ; but I 
 think she has gone a little too far this time. 
 Only I must be ready to meet her. What's the 
 line of attack ; have you any idea ? On what 
 will they base the charge ? What was the de- 
 tective doing all the time he was at the Hall ? " 
 
 Gibbings recounted Earswick's movements 
 and manoeuvres as far as he was able, upbraid- 
 ing himself at the same time and without hesi- 
 tation for his simplicity and want of reserve.
 
 ON THE TRIAL SIDE. 267 
 
 " I don't blame you, Gibbings," said the 
 Colonel. " How were you to guess what he 
 was after ? At any rate, it don't matter now. 
 What we have to think of is my defence." 
 
 " You will have a lawyer, sir, of course." 
 
 " The best that can be got for money. You 
 shall telegraph for me to Amos Davis of High 
 Holborn, begging him to come down for the 
 first examination." 
 
 "When will that be, sir?" 
 
 " To-day. They are bound to have me up 
 at once. I shall apply for a remand, and 
 Davis can be here to - morrow. We'll turn 
 the tables on them yet, never fear." • 
 
 "It must have been a great shock to you, 
 sir," said G-ibbings, sympathetically. "And the 
 mistress — Mrs St Evelyn, I mean — how did she 
 take it?" 
 
 *^She does not know yet. I could not break 
 it to her over there, and now it seems more 
 difiicult than ever. How is it to be done ? " 
 
 " I hope I don't intrude, sir — but wouldn't 
 my lady " suggested Gibbings, timidly.
 
 268 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 " Her mother would be the proper person, 
 of course. But how can I trust Lady Lezaire ? 
 She would probably delight in torturing my 
 poor dear Each el just because she is my wife." 
 
 ** Oh, sir, hardly," Gibbings protested. 
 
 " Fd far rather you told her. I have every 
 confidence in your fidelity, your good feeling, 
 Gibbings." 
 
 *' I'll do my best, sir," said the trusty servitor, 
 with rather a husky voice. " I'm only a rough 
 chap, sir ; but you've been a good master to 
 me, and I'd go any lengths to serve you. When 
 shall I speak to the mistress, sir ? " 
 
 '* Directly she returns." 
 
 " When do you expect her, sir ? " 
 
 " In the course of to-day or to-morrow. She 
 promised to wire directly she started. You 
 must be on the look-out for any telegrams ; 
 they will be addressed, of course, to the 
 Hall" 
 
 "Yes, sir. Will the mistress go straight 
 there, sir?" asked Gibbings. 
 
 " Naturally. AVhere else ? "
 
 ON THE TRIAL SIDE. 2G9 
 
 *' Then my lady will be bound to tell her 
 first. Hadn't I better meet the mistress at the 
 station, sir? I could invent some story, per- 
 haps : say you've been taken ill and couldn't 
 get on to the Hall ; that you had to go to an 
 hospital ; and then we could bring her here. 
 She would not know the difference at first, and 
 you could tell her the truth, or part of it." 
 
 *'I believe you're right, Gibbings ; but I'm 
 quite unable to advise. I don't mind about 
 myself, but I'm quite knocked over when I 
 think of her." 
 
 The governor now looked in to hint that time 
 was running on. • 
 
 " You are to be brought before the Bench at 
 eleven, Colonel. It is only formal, but we must 
 not be late." 
 
 " I shall apply for a remand, as I am still 
 undefended. They must grant that. Who will 
 be sitting ? " 
 
 " A very full meeting, I expect. Lord Prud- 
 hames said he would certainly be present, and 
 Mr Etherly and General Wyndham-Parker "
 
 2*70 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 " "Who'd like to see me hanged. But I shall 
 cheat him of that satisfaction, I think. At any 
 rate, they shall not say I showed the white 
 feather." 
 
 The Sessions Court was of course crowded; 
 all Thorpeshire was convulsed. Such a cause 
 celehre had not been known in the county for a 
 century or more. 
 
 " How does he look ? " " How does he take 
 it ? " " Did he do it ? " " What will he say ? " 
 These were the eager queries bandied from lip 
 to lip as high and low, peer and peasant, mag- 
 nate and working man, jostled and fought for a 
 chance of seeing and hearing what passed. 
 
 No answer to these vexed questions, no solu- 
 tion of the awful problem, were afforded by St 
 Evelyn's demeanour in court. He faced his 
 judges — the whole bench of magistrates, of 
 whose body he was still a member — boldly, 
 with head erect, defiant, and unabashed. ^' It 
 will save your lordship's and the court's time," 
 he said, in reply to the first formal interrog- 
 atories, " if I ask at once for a remand. 1 am
 
 ON THE TRIAL SIDE. 271 
 
 still undefended. I claim time to secure legal 
 assistance." 
 
 He spoke firmly, in a loud, high-pitched voice, 
 as though he was giving the word of command. 
 
 "We cannot object to that," said Lord Prud- 
 hames, the chairman. " What time do you 
 ask ? " 
 
 " A day or two, my lord." 
 
 " Eemand till Saturday. Enter that on the 
 sheet, Mr Lashleigh. And you will under- 
 stand " — this to the prisoner — " that we are 
 forbidden by law to allow bail." 
 
 St Evelyn bowed in courteous acknow- 
 ledgment. ^ 
 
 " I am aware of that. I have not asked for 
 bail." 
 
 With that he was removed, and passed by 
 a private door direct from the court-house back 
 to the jail.
 
 272 
 
 CHAPTEK XXIV. 
 
 MRS ST EVELYN HEARS. 
 
 The distinguished prisoner was exercising, 
 alone, in the trial prisoners' yard that after- 
 noon, when Gibbings, who had gone back to 
 Straddlethorpe, entered the enclosure carrying 
 a telegram in his hand. 
 
 "This has been opened," said the Colonel at 
 once. 
 
 " By my lady, sir. She insisted, saying she 
 was sure it was from Mrs St Evelyn." 
 
 " I wonder she dared. What right had she 
 to break the seal ? " he cried, as he strode im- 
 patiently up and down the narrow yard. " And 
 now I am powerless to protect poor Kachel from 
 her."
 
 MES ST EVELYN HEARS. 273 
 
 '* Is the mistress coming to-day ? " Gibbings 
 at last ventured to ask. 
 
 " Early this evening. ' All well : starting by 
 mid-day boat : expect us at nine/ she says." 
 
 " That explains, sir. My lady ordered the 
 carriage — the large landau, sir, and the luggage- 
 cart — to be at Market Reepham at nine." 
 
 " Is Lady Lezaire going to the station 
 herself ? " 
 
 "I'm not sure as to that, sir. I could find 
 out, perhaps, if there was time." 
 
 " In any case you must forestall her. Be on 
 the platform, Gibbings, and get first speech of 
 Mrs St Evelyn. Tell her what we arranged 
 together." 
 
 When the London express ran into Market 
 Reepham station that evening, Lady Lezaire 
 was prominent among the waiting crowd. It 
 was her first appearance in public. She was in 
 deep mourning for her son, and a murmur of 
 sympathy went through the throng as she 
 stepped forward towards the halted train. 
 
 Then Mrs St Evelyn's pretty head appeared 
 
 VOL. I. s
 
 274 BY HOOK OR CEOOK. 
 
 at the window, and it was known why the 
 mother had come there. 
 
 Many people pressed forward, curious to hear 
 what greetings passed between the two ladies, 
 and in the crowd Gibbings was shut out 
 entirely. 
 
 "Dear mother ! " cried Mrs St Evelyn, 
 directly. " But where is Ferdinand ? " Her 
 voice changed at once to one of manifest 
 anxiety. 
 
 " He could not get here in time. He was 
 detained," faltered Lady Lezaire, deterred by a 
 look in her daughter's face from speaking more 
 plainly. 
 
 " He is ill, I am sure of it. Something ter- 
 rible has happened. Let me go to him at 
 once," cried Mrs St Evelyn. 
 
 "No, no ; your husband is well enough," said 
 Lady Lezaire ; " only he was prevented from 
 coming." 
 
 " But why ? You are not telling me the 
 whole truth. I must go to him. Is the car- 
 riage here ? "
 
 MKS ST EVELYN HEARS. 275 
 
 " Of course, dear," said Lady Lezaire ; *' the 
 landau — there is room for you all. Come, they 
 will see to the baggage. We will go on at 
 once to the Hall." 
 
 The Lezaire party — her ladyship and daugh- 
 ter, the nurses and the two children — left the 
 platform, making their way with some difficulty 
 through the crowd. 
 
 Mrs St Evelyn, as she passed, caught sight 
 of Gibbings ; something in the man's face — his 
 gravity, the fixed way in which he looked at 
 her — prompted her to speak. 
 
 " Why, here is Gibbings. Where is your 
 master ? " she asked eagerly, and it was -clear 
 she had been quite dissatisfied with Lady 
 Lezaire's explanation. 
 
 " The Colonel's not very well," Gibbings 
 said, a little hesitatingly, as though the fiction 
 prepared did not come very glibly to his tongue. 
 
 " I thought so," cried Mrs St Evelyn, snatch- 
 ing at the words. " I knew you were conceal- 
 ing something, mother. What is it ? Quick I 
 I must know the worst."
 
 276 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 "He would like to see you as soon as pos- 
 sible," went on Gibbings. 
 
 " Of course. She is going to him now," put 
 in Lady Lezaire. " We are only losing time. 
 The carriage is waiting to take us to the Hall." 
 
 " To the Hall ? " and again Gibbings's voice 
 and manner conveyed a hidden mystery to the 
 anxious wife. 
 
 "To the Hall," repeated Mrs St Evelyn. 
 " Surely he is there if he is ill ? " She now 
 looked to her mother with bewildered inquiring 
 eyes. 
 
 Before Lady Lezaire could bring herself to 
 frame the falsehood she would have liked to 
 utter, Gibbings had replied — 
 
 " The master is in Market Eeepham ; in — in 
 — in the hospital." 
 
 " Why wasn't I told this at once ? Oh, 
 mother, you have been deceiving me. It was 
 unfair, unkind. Take me to your master at 
 once, Gibbings." 
 
 " I acted for the best, I assure you, Eachel," 
 pleaded Lady Lezaire. " It was so terrible to
 
 MRS ST EVELYN HEARS. 27 
 
 K 
 
 have to tell you. Won't you wait? Let me 
 go with you." 
 
 " No, no ; I shall go quicker with Gibbings. 
 Get a fly." 
 
 " At least take the carriage," urged Lady 
 Lezaire. " We can wait." 
 
 But already Mrs St Evelyn had disappeared, 
 and was to be seen entering a cab, which Gib- 
 bings had wisely ordered to be in attendance 
 outside the station. 
 
 It was a short ten minutes' drive from the 
 station to the jail in Market Eeepham. The 
 summer twilight had faded out of the sky, but 
 there was sufficient light by which to recognise 
 the forbidding exterior of the grim old jail. 
 
 ^' What is this ? " cried Mrs St Evelyn, as the 
 carriage stopped. "Not a hospital! It is the 
 prison — the county jail. Why do you bring 
 me here ? " she continued, with quickly risen 
 agitation to Gibbings, who had dismounted the 
 box and opened the door of the fly. 
 
 " This is where Colonel St Evelyn is," replied 
 the man, sorrowfully.
 
 278 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 " In jail ? A prisoner ? My dear husband ? 
 Impossible ! " 
 
 Gibbings did not dare reply, nor did Major 
 Euddock, who now appeared at the lodge gate, 
 to whom Mrs St Evelyn repeated her horror- 
 stricken inquiry. 
 
 " At least he will tell me himself. Take me 
 to Colonel St Evelyn this instant ! " she cried, 
 half frantic with indignation and terror. 
 
 " The visiting hours are past," humbly pro- 
 tested the governor, " but " 
 
 " I must and will see him. The rules cannot 
 apply to him. You shall not keep me from 
 him." 
 
 The stern disciplinarian gave way, but with 
 manifest reluctance, to the pathetic entreaties 
 of his old friend's wife. 
 
 Poor Mrs St Evelyn was led through the 
 same dreary passages that her husband had 
 traversed the night before, realising with a 
 deeper anguish the horrors of this gruesome 
 place. She was almost fainting when the last 
 bolts were withdrawn, the last iron-bound door
 
 MKS ST EVELYN HEARS. 279 
 
 unlocked, and she saw by the dim gaslight her 
 husband standing ready to receive her in his 
 outstretched arms. 
 
 " Oh, Ferdinand ! " was all the tender-hearted 
 wife could say, and for quite ^ve minutes 
 neither could utter any coherent words. She 
 lay there in his arms, sobbing her heart out, 
 while he vainly strove to soothe and quiet her 
 with endearing epithets, and tried to kiss away 
 her tears. 
 
 " What does it mean, Ferdinand ? I am 
 utterly amazed, bewildered. Why are you 
 here ? Tell me, quick. I think I shall under- 
 stand." « 
 
 " I have been arrested on a monstrous 
 charge. I am accused, falsely accused — you 
 believe me, Kachel ? " 
 
 "As if I could doubt my husband. What- 
 ever they say, whatever happens, I could never 
 bring myself to think evil of you, Ferdinand." 
 
 " I had enemies, I knew that — bitter, un- 
 scrupulous foes — but I never thought they 
 would bring me to this. It is a most wild,
 
 280 BY HOOK OE CROOK. 
 
 wicked inyention.* I am absolutely innocent, 
 God knows " 
 
 '' But of what, Ferdinand ? You have not 
 told me yet of what you are accused." 
 
 " There are those who it seems will go any 
 lengths to brand me, to ruin me utterly, in this 
 world and in that to come. They do not hesitate 
 to charge me with a foul, dastardly crime " 
 
 "A crime? You, my dearest, best-beloved 
 husband ? What crime ? " 
 
 " I am taxed, Eachel — prepare yourself, dear 
 girl ; be brave, be strong, for you will find what 
 I have to say most grievous, most terribly hard 
 to bear. They say it was I who killed him ; I, 
 your husband, his brother, in affection if not by 
 ties of blood." 
 
 " Killed him ? Carysfort ? You ? " 
 
 " They say I murdered him." 
 
 " Oh ! shameful, base, dastardly lie ! " 
 
 "You do not, will not believe it? That is 
 all I care to know." 
 
 " Believe that, Ferdinand, of you ? " She 
 raised her tearful face from his shoulder and
 
 MRS ST EVELYN HEARS. 281 
 
 looked with earnest trustful eyes into his, now 
 bent so anxiously on her. " Never ! " 
 
 " I am satisfied then ; they may try their 
 worst. Whatever happens, I shall be strength- 
 ened and fortified by your simple, unquestion- 
 ing faith." 
 
 " Whatever happens indeed, Ferdinand : if 
 all the world should swear it, I would not be- 
 lieve that you could have done such a wicked, 
 horrible thing." 
 
 " My sweet wife, your brave words give me 
 courage. I am ready now to face the worst. 
 We will fight them and conquer, never fear." 
 He bent his head and kissed her solemnly on 
 the forehead, after which there was a long si- 
 lence ; their hearts were too full for words. 
 
 " It's growing late," said the Colonel at 
 length — "you cannot, must not linger here." 
 
 " Oh, Ferdinand, do not send me away 
 from you ! This is my place, here, at your 
 side." 
 
 " My sweet, it is quite impossible. The rules 
 are inexorable ; besides, you want rest. Ee-
 
 282 BY HOOK OR CROOK. 
 
 member, if you are to help me now, you must 
 keep up your courage and your strength." 
 
 " Do not drive me from you, Ferdinand, I 
 implore." 
 
 " I am helpless, dearest. We must bend 
 before the law." 
 
 " I will not go far then, Ferdinand. I must, 
 at least, have the satisfaction of knowing I am 
 close at hand." 
 
 "You will be near enough at the Hall, 
 dearest." 
 
 " I could not go there : don't ask me. I 
 could not bear to face my mother." 
 
 " You have seen her ? Lady Lezaire has not 
 been unkind, I hope? Surely her cruel ani- 
 mosity does not extend to you ? " 
 
 " She is my mother, Ferdinand, and I dare- 
 say she means well. But do not ask me to see 
 her or speak to her just now ; I could not bear 
 it. Besides, I could not be separated by all 
 those miles from you. I must be with you al- 
 ways — every moment, at least, that is possible — 
 while you are passing through this awful trial."
 
 MRS ST EVELYN HEARS. 283 
 
 " Where will you go ? You will be better 
 really at the Hall." 
 
 "I will take rooms here in Market Eeepham, 
 at one of the hotels, the ' Kaven,' anywhere. 
 Do not oppose me in this." 
 
 " My sweet pet, I know the spirit that ani- 
 mates you — far be it from me to balk you ; 
 indeed it encourages me, and gives me fresh 
 strength." 
 
 The adieux between husband and wife were 
 painful and protracted, but at last they were 
 said. Then, as the cab still waited at the 
 prison gates, Mrs St Evelyn, still escorted by 
 Gibbings, was driven to the " Eaven " hotel. 
 After this the faithful man-servant then drove 
 on to the Hall, whence he despatched the lady's- 
 maid with portmanteaus and so forth, to join 
 her youiig mistress that same night at the hotel. 
 
 END OF THE FIEST VOLUME.
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS.
 
 ,1, 'i^iii;; t,'"li\v; " 1, 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLIN0I8-URBANA 
 
 3 0112 046414634 
 
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