hen the crackling of the underbrush behind
him, a moment later, gave notice that some one was approaching, there
was even a smile on his face, though, usually, he could not bear to be
intruded upon when fishing.

Rather idly the colonel, having mercifully killed his fish by a blow on
top of the head and slipped it into the grass-lined creel, looked up to
see approaching a young lady and a tall and somewhat lanky boy. There
was some thing vaguely familiar about the boy, though the fisherman did
not tax his mind with remembering, then, where or when he had seen him
before.

"There he is," went the words of the boy, as he and the young woman
came in sight of the colonel and Shag--but it was at the detective the
lad pointed. "There he is!"

The girl rushed impulsively forward, and, as she held out her hands in
a voiceless appeal, there was worry and anguish depicted on her face.

"Are you Colonel Brentnall?" she asked.

The colonel was sufficiently familiar with his alias not to betray
surprise when it was used.

"I am," he said, and the peaceful, joyous look that had come into his
eyes when he had landed his fish gave way to a hard and professional
stare.

"Oh, Colonel Brentnall! I've come to ask you to help me--help him!
You will, won't you? Don't say you won't!"

The girl's face, her blue eyes, the outstretched hands, the very poise
of her lithe, young body voiced the appeal.

"My dear young lady," began the colonel. But she interrupted with:

"You're the detective, aren't you?"

"Well--er--I--Say rather _a_ detective, for there are many, and I am
only one."

"But you are the one from New York?"

"I am though I don't know how you guessed it. I am not here
professionally, though--in fact, I've practically retired--and I would
much prefer--"

"But you wouldn't refuse to help any one who needed it, would you? You
wouldn't, I'm sure!" and the girl smiled through the tears in her blue
eyes.

"Oh, of course, as a matter of humanity, I would not refuse to help any
one. But, professionally--well, really, I'm not here in my detective
role. I really can not consider anything at this time. I don't want
to seem harsh, or impolite, but I can't--"

"Not even for double your usual fee? Listen! I am prepared to pay
well for anything you can do for me--and him. My father is well off.
I have money in my own right. I'd spend the last dollar of that. And
dad said, when I told him where I was going--Dad s