The Argosy — page 185: what you’re looking at

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

168 The Mystery of Allan Grale. Joe Ward who brought the news to us. Joe said a strange gentle- man had met him in the road, who told him General Vivian was lying in a fit a little further on, and bade him run to the ‘ Knight’s Arms’ for help. We made sure this gentleman had gone back to the General, and that we’d find him with him when we got there; but there was no sign of him. It seemed queer.” ‘* Perhaps he had gone off in another direction for more help,” suggested Maria, ‘‘or was pressed for time and could not wait. A stranger, did the boy say ?” ‘“That’s what Joe called him, ‘a strange gentleman.’ But he could hardly have been quite a stranger, or how would he have known the General’s name, and the sign of the Knight’s Arms ?” Maria hesitated whether to tell Webster about the missing pendant, but she decided that she would not for the present. Webster was a worthy man, but sensitive and easily offended, and there was no knowing how he might take it. Most likely it would be found on the spot, trodden down into the ground, so as not to be conspicuous to any casual observer. ‘There were no thieves likely to be lurking in sweet Dering lanes, and the ornaments which remained safe were worth much more than the lost trifle. She herself would take an early opportunity of going to the place, and quietly searching for it. It actually seemed to her that in that elusive dream, after which her memory vainly grasped, there was something lost, which was found again when it seemed least likely, and that both the loss and the finding were in someway con- nected with the Dark Pool. COA! ER”: MRS. GRALE’S BASKET. TuHatT day things had been going on more happily than usual at Moor- land House. Poor Mrs. Grale’s world was ever brighter when her son was at home. Allan might not be always very dutifully attentive, but he always spoke kindly to his mother; he never jarred her nerves as his father did, or snubbed her after Mary Anne’s fashion. And now he really seemed to have returned from this holiday at his very best. She was sure that his father would be gratified by Allan’s early attendance on business that morning (she knew nothing of the trouble at the works), and much as she longed for a chat with her boy, she noted with pleasure that he did not return home till the luncheon hour. Possibly it was this new devotion to duty which made Allan, during that meal, rather more silent and pre-occupied than was his wont. But when it was over he showed no signs of hurrying back. Mary Anne went away to pursue some of her own devices, and Mrs. Grale pulled her knitting from her work-bag, and, with her son lingering beside her, felt herself a happy woman. CONNIE OOO KS (EO)