legram from a London barrister that said:

"'Inquiry complete. The man is a pure adventurer, character _nil_.'

"'We must act immediately,' says Dan.

"'I have telephoned all over the village for Sam,' I says. 'They
say he's out in his car with Aleck an' Lizzie. I asked them to
send him here as soon as he returns.'

"'They're down on the Post Road I met 'em on my way here,' says
Dan. 'We can overtake that car easy.'

"Well, the wedding-day was approaching an' Aleck had the money, an'
the thought occurred to me that he might give 'em the slip
somewhere on the road an' get away with it. I left word in the
store that if Sam got back before I saw him he was to wait with
Aleck in my office until I returned, an' off we started like a
baseball on its way from the box to the catcher.

"An officer on his motor-cycle overhauled us on the Post Road. He
knew me.

"'It's a case o' sickness,' I says, 'an' we're after Sam Henshaw.'

"'He's gone down the road an' hasn't come back yet,' says the
officer.

"I passed him a ten-dollar bill.

"'Keep within sight of us,' I says. 'We may need you any minute.'

"He nodded and smiled, an' away we went.

"'I'm wonderin' how we're agoin' to get the money,' I says, havin'
told Dan about it.

"'I'll take it away from him,' says Dan.

"'That wouldn't do,' says I.

"'Why not?'

"'Why not!' says I. 'You wouldn't want to be arrested for highway
robbery. Then, too, we must think o' Lizzie. Poor girl! It's
agoin' to be hard on her, anyhow. I'll try a bluff. It's probable
that he's worked this game before. If so, we can rob him without
violence an' let him go.'

"Dan grew joyful as we sped along.

"'Lizzie is mine,' he says. 'She wouldn't marry him now.'

"He told me how fond they had been of each other until they got
accomplishments an' began to put up the price o' themselves. He
said that in their own estimation they had riz in value like beef
an' ham, an' he confessed how foolish he had been. We were excited
an' movin' fast.

"'Something'll happen soon,' he says.

"An' it did, within ten minutes from date. We could see a blue car
half a mile ahead.

"'I'll go by that ol' freight-car o' the Henshaws',' says Dan.
'They'll take after me, for Sam is vain of his car. We can halt
them in that narrow cut on the hill beyond the Byron River.'

"We had rounded the turn at Chesterville, when we saw the Henshaw
car just ahead of us, with Aleck at the wheel an' Liz