eration, let anything interfere
with our vacation, Shag."

"No, sah, Colonel. No, sah!"

"If you see me buying a paper, Shag, mind, if you ever hear me asking if
the last edition is out, stop me at once."

"I will, Colonel."

"And if any one tries to tell me of a murder mystery, of a big robbery,
or of anything except where the fish are biting best, Shag, why, you
just--"

"I'll jest natchully knock 'em down, Colonel! Dat's what I'll do!"
exclaimed the colored man, as cheerfully as though he would relish such
"Well, I can't advise that, of course," said the colonel with a smile,
"but you may use your own judgment. I came here for a rest, and I don't
want to run into another diamond cross mystery, or anything like it."

"No, sah, Colonel. But yo' suah did elucidate dat one most expeditious
like. I nevah saw sech--"

"That will do now, Shag. I don't want to be reminded of it. I came here
to fish, not to work, nor hold any post-mortems on past cases. Now for
it!" and the elderly man cast in where a little eddy, under the grassy
bank, indicated deep water, in which the perch or other fish might lurk
this sunny day.

And yet, in spite of his determination not to recall the details of the
diamond cross mystery to which Shag had alluded, Colonel Ashley could
not help dwelling on one or two phases of what, with justifiable pride,
he regarded as one of the most successful of his many cases.

Colonel Robert Lee Ashley was a detective by instinct and profession,
though of late years he had endeavored, but with scant success, to turn
the more routine matters of his profession over to his able assistants.

To those who have read of his masterly solution of the diamond cross
mystery the colonel needs no introduction. He was a well known character
in police and criminal circles, because of his success in catching many
a slippery representative of the latter.

He had served in the secret service during the Spanish-American war, and
later had become the head of the police department of a large Eastern
city. From that he had built up a private business of his own that
assumed large proportions, until advancing age and a desire to fish and
reflect caused him virtually to retire from active work. And now, as he
had so often done before, he had come to this quiet stream to angle.

And yet, even as he dropped his bait into the water, he could not keep
his active mind from passing in rapid review over some of the events of
his