etly.
"To Scotland Yard."
"Excuse me, sir; it is no mistake. I'll go with you, of course, but you
will thank me one of those days for being so prompt. You have been
imposed upon by one of the cleverest scoundrels of his time. James Dale
is--"
"Mr James Barron, man."
"No, Sir Mark; James Dale, charged with swindling the Russian government
of a tremendous sum by the issuing of forged rouble notes."
"What?"
"And just off to Buenos Ayres."
"To the West Indies, man--to his estate."
"Yes, sir," said the man dryly; "he's going to his estate, but it isn't
there."
Sir Mark looked wildly round at the crowd of friends who were drawing
away, and without another word accompanied the officer to the carriage,
where, as soon as they were started, the latter addressed himself to
Guest, the admiral having sunk back in one corner, trying to collect his
thoughts, but only to begin listening intently.
"No mistake, sir," said the officer. "I wish for the gentleman's sake
there was. The prisoner has been carrying on the game for a long time
with a copper-plate printer, a man named Henderson--Samuel Henderson.
We took him an hour ago, and it was through a letter we found in his
pocket that we knew what was going on here, and arrived just in time for
the young lady."
Guest glanced at Sir Mark and met his eyes.
"Quite the gentleman, our friend Dale," continued the officer.
"Schoolmaster once, I found. Speaks languages, plays, and sings. Great
yachting man. Deceive anybody; but his game's up now. Couldn't live in
England as it was. Where did he say he was going--West Indies, sir?"
Guest nodded.
"Well, he was going on farther south. He had taken tickets for the
River Plate."
Sir Mark started violently.
There was silence for a few moments, and Guest's resentment against Myra
died out as he thought of the poor girl in the power of a scoundrel
thousands of miles from home.
"Lady has money, I suppose?" whispered the officer from behind his hand.
Guest gave a short, sharp nod, and then felt annoyed with himself, but
the officer took no heed and went on:
"Of course she would have, sir. Well, my gentleman will not be able to
touch that, and I suppose there will be no difficulty about getting a
divorce."
At those words a flood of thought flashed through Guest's brain, and he
recalled conversations held with Edie respecting the marriage, and the
girl's boldly expressed belief that her cousin would
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