The Argosy, Vol. XXV, No. 1 — page 114: what you’re looking at

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

114 BY RIGHT OF SWORD, A letter came to me from ‘‘ Hamylton Tregethner,”’ Olga’s brother. He had escaped, as we knew, and had made his way to Paris. He was going on, he said, to America as soon as he had enjoyed himself ; and when he found himself in New York, he purposed to change his name and nationality once more and be a Pole. ‘‘ I have not had many adventures,’’ he wrote; ‘‘ nor do I seem to have met many men who know me. But I had one encounter that was rather amusing. Iwas at breakfast and saw a man staring hard at me from the other side of the room. I thought he might be a friend and so I did not look at him. But he would not take hiseyes from me, and when I left the table he followed and spoke tome. ‘Hamylton, old man, I did not know you at first. You’re looking frightfully ill and altered. You’re not going to cut me.’ This gave me a cue, though I did not understand all he said, when he added something about ‘on account of somebody’s conduct.’ I did cut him, however ; looked him hard in the face and curling my lip as if in profound con- tempt, I turned on my heel. I had the curiosity to ask afterwards who he was, and they gave me his name as the Hon. Rupert Balestier. I suppose I know him, but I thought the best way was not to speak. I did not shake him off, however, for that night he saw me again just when I was speaking English to some other men. I saw him listening as if he could not believe his ears : and as soon as I was alone he came up and asked me who I was and what right I had to masquerade as his old friend, Hamylton Tregethner. For answer I gave him another stare and got away. Then I changed my hotel andam going away from Paris for a few days. I do not intend to be bothered by the man.”’ My first impression of this incident was that it boded further danger. I knew Balestier. He was a man of great resolution, and if he imagined that any one was masquerading in my name in Paris, he would think nothing of rousing both the English and Russian embassies ; or of coming on to Moscow himself to probe the thing to the bottom. He loved mysteries ; was most active, energetic, and enterprising ; and nothing would suit him better: than to have imported into his rather purposeless life some such task as a search for me half over EKurope. He was quite capable, too, of jumping to the con- clusion that the man he had met had murdered and was personating me ; and in a belief of the kind he was just the one to raise the hue and cry in every police office on the Continent. What the real Alexis called ‘‘speaking English’’ was of course bad enough to brand him anywhere as an impostor should he try to pass himself off asan Englishman. Balestier had no doubt listened in amazemeut to this strange jargon coming from lips that looked like mine ; and the extraordinary likeness and ‘‘ my’’ peculiar conduct would quite complete his perplexity. Probably I should hear more of the matter; and this set me considering whether I could not manage in some way to communicate with Balestier and get him to help in smuggling Olga across the frontier. He would revel in the work if I could only find him. I turned to ‘‘ Tregethner’s’’ letters, therefore, to find the name of the hotel, and to my infinite annoyance the fool had not mentioned it ; while his Eomichook (S@)