coming of Captain Allen."

"Is he often away?"

"No, sir; but oftener of late than formerly."

"Is his absence usually of a prolonged character?"

"It is much longer than it used to be--never less than a month, and
often extended to three times that period."

Colonel Willoughby sat without further remark for some time, his eyes
bent down, his brows contracted by thought, and his lips firmly drawn
together.

"Thank you, my friend," he said, at length, looking up, "for your
patience in answering my idle questions. I will not detain you any
longer."

The landlord arose, and, bowing to his guest, retired from the
apartment.

CHAPTER III.

On the next morning Colonel Willoughby plied the landlord with a few
more questions about Captain Allen, and then, inquiring the direction of
his house, started out, as he said, to take a ramble through the town.
He did not come back until near dinner time, and then he showed no
disposition to encourage familiarity on the part of Mr. Adams. But that
individual was not in the dark touching the morning whereabouts of his
friend. A familiar of his, stimulated by certain good things which the
landlord knew when and how to dispense, had tracked the stranger from
the "White Swan" to Captain Allen's house. After walking around it, on
the outside of the enclosure once or twice, and viewing it on all sides,
he had ventured, at last, through the gate, and up to the front door of
the stately mansion. A servant admitted him, and the landlord's familiar
loitered around for nearly three hours before he came out. Mrs. Allen
accompanied him to the door, and stood and talked with him earnestly
for some time in the portico. They shook hands in parting, and Colonel
Willoughby retired with a firm, slow step, and his eyes bent downwards
as if his thoughts were sober, if not oppressive.

All this Mr. Adams knew; and of course, his curiosity was pitched to a
high key. But, it was all in vain that he threw himself in the way
of his guest, made leading remarks, and even asked if he had seen the
splendid dwelling of Captain Allen. The handsome stranger held him
firmly at a distance. And not only on that day and evening, but on the
next day and the next. He was polite even to blandness, but suffered no
approach beyond the simplest formal intercourse. Every morning he was
seen going to Captain Allen's house, where he always stayed several
hours. The afternoons he spent, for the most part, in his