elf something of a modern Don
Quixote as he lighted his pipe.

Then there was a roar in the tunnel and a North British express,
leaping out through a cloud of smoke, switched his thoughts on to
another track. His adventures had begun in a train, and it was in a
train he met the girl who warned him not to deliver Carmen's packet.
He did not see what the packet had to do with him, but he had had some
trouble about it and thought it might turn up again. Then he wondered
whether Daly was now in Annandale. The fellow was obviously determined
to find Lawrence, and, if one admitted that he had come to England for
the purpose, did not mind how much it cost him, which was rather
strange. After all, blackmailing was a risky business and the
Featherstones were not rich. It looked as if Daly might have some
other object in tracking Lawrence, but Foster could not see what it
was. Indeed, he was frankly puzzled. There was a mystery about
Carmen's packet, he had been warned out of Edinburgh, and inquiries
about him were afterwards made, while Daly's keenness was not quite
explained. He wondered whether these things were somehow related, but
at present they only offered him tangled clews that led nowhere. Well,
he might be able to unravel them by and by, and getting up went on his
way.

He spent the night at a lonely cothouse on the edge of a peat-moss and
reached the Garth next afternoon. John let him in and after taking his
mackintosh remarked: "Mr. and Mrs. Featherstone are out, but Miss
Featherstone is at home; I will let her know you have arrived." Then
he paused and added in a half-apologetic tone: "I hope you had a
pleasant journey, sir."

Foster smiled. John had softened his imperturbable formality by just
the right touch of respectful interest. In a sense, they were
accomplices, but Foster thought if they had committed a crime together,
the old fellow would have treated him with unmoved deference as his
master's guest.

"On the whole, I had. I suppose you met the other car when you turned
back at the station?"

"Yes, sir. I met it coming round the bend."

"As the road's narrow, your judgment's pretty good. Did anything
happen?"

John's eyes twinkled faintly. "Not to our car, sir. The other had the
bad luck to run on to the grass where the ground was soft. In fact, we
had some trouble to pull her out. The gentleman seemed annoyed, sir."

Foster went to his room chuckling. He could imagine the def