The Argosy, Vol. 83 No. 1 — page 59: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

HAMPTON OF He is leaving no stone unturned to ruin me in business. I hope you will tell me what you know of him, Hampton.” Jerry was thoughtful for a moment. “T know virtually nothing of him, ex- cept as one knows a chance acquaintance,” he said. “Your grandmother said nothing of the Mr, Tarleton who has been visiting you,” Delroy went on, eyeing him shrewdly, “and you may “wonder that I didn’t quiz her. I didn’t think that I could learn much more from her than I have learned already from my daughter. Eugenia has told me of how near she came to running you and Mr. Tarleton down with her car. She has also told me of Mr. Tarleton’s gallant part in the unpleasant little episode in the restaurant. She didn’t recognize ‘Mr. Tarleton’ as he jumped from the library window last night, but she de- scribed him clearly enough from her first meeting with him, so that the identity is established. He was staying here with _ you, I dare say, when I received the tele- gram from Philadelphia.” “T don’t think I care to go into details to any extent, Mr. Delroy,” Jerry replied. “T am not a party to this present affair, and I’d rather not be.” “Of course,” said Delroy suavely, “you wouldn’t refuse to tell the police what you know?” “Tf you are going to make a police case of it,” was the answer, “why, then—”’ “Well, I’m not!” the other interrupted, with an air of becoming confidential. “I allowed the police to be called in when I lost my head, but you know that I told the patrolman precious little. They are looking for a burglar, not for Exmoor. Exmoor is not a burglar—I only wish he were—and Exmoor is not easily caught. - How did you come to know him, Hamp- ton? Tell me that much!” “Tn the most casual way. We just ran across each other, as it were, and got ac- quainted as men will. As a matter of fact, we were both swimming in the Hud- son River at the time. That’s about all I can tell you, Mr. Delroy; but I might tell 4A THE HEIGHTS. 49 you that a man came here to see him last night, and happened to be the same man who bowled me over earlier in the evening at your house.” “Ah!” cried Delroy, with vast satisfac- tion, “I was going to ask you abousgipa athat other fellow.” “Yes, he dropped in here,” Jerry went on, “and he was so importunate in the matter of his errand that he—well, I’m ashamed to say that he bowled me over again. Then he made a good job of ran- sacking my house, but I can’t find that he took anything away with him.” Delroy’s eyes gleamed with excitement. “Did you see him in the light that time,” he cried. “Did you get a look at his face?” “Miss Delroy had already described him,” answered Jerry; “he was the man who alarmed her during the day—a man of perhaps fifty, with a grayish beard.” ‘‘Kingsale!”’ shouted Delroy, so loudly that Denny, the farmhand, looked up from his work in the garden with a start. The. shout, however, was as eloquent of gratifi- cation as of anything else. “He seemed a rather desperate charac- ter, for a man of his age and appearance,” said Jerry, “but you don’t seem disturbed about it.” Delroy smiled enigmatically. “They say that ‘hawks dinna pyke out hawks’ een,’” he replied, “but I’d trust one of those hawks to spoil the other’s hunting for him. If a fox and a hound meet while chasing the same rabbit, the rabbit has a fair show of getting away.” “You say that Exmoor is trying to ruin you in business,” Jerry remarked, frankly curious. ‘I understood that you were re- tired, Mr. Delroy; I never heard that you were in any active business.” “T am retired,” the other answered di- rectly, “but a retired man has to have an income. Your friend Exmoor is trying to deprive me of my means of living, and incidentally he is trying to deprive Eu- genia of her own little private fortune.” Jerry took the statement with a grain of salt. : Gomichbook (S@)