The Argosy — page 216: what you’re looking at

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

Caramel Cottage. 199 “Cand I never knowed at all, till fetched to this police station yester- day, that your dog was a missing. Jl swear I didn’t.” There was nothing more to be done, but to accept the failure, and leave the station, after privately charging the police to keep an eye on clever Mr. Dick Standish, his haunts, and his movements. In the afternoon we drove back home, not best pleased with the day’s work. A sense of having been doze, in some way or other not at present explicable, lay on most of us. It appeared that the groom shared this feeling strongly. In passing through the yard, I came upon him, in his shirt sleeves, seated out- side the stable door, on an inverted bucket. His elbows on his knees, and his face in his hands, he looked the image of despair. The picture arrested me. Mack was rubbing down the horses; a duty Giles rarely entrusted to anybody. He was fond of Don, and had been ready to hang himself ever since Tuesday night. ‘Why, Giles! what’s the matter ?” ‘* Matter enough, Master Johnny, when a false villyan like that Dick Standish can take the master, and the police theirselves, and every- body else, in!” was his answer. ‘‘I felt as cock-sure, sir, that we should bring home Don as I am that the sky above us is shining out blue after the last shower.” ‘But it was not Don, you see, Giles.” “ He wasn’t; the dog Standish had to show,” returned Giles, with a peculiar emphasis. ‘“ Dick had got up his tale all smooth and sleek, .sir-” “ How do you know he had ?” ‘“ Because he told it me over again—the one he said he had been telling at the police station, Master Johnny. I was standing outside the inn yard while you were all in at lunch, and Standish came by as bold as brass, Brazer’s dog, Rover, leashed to his hand.” ‘““T suppose it is Brazer’s dog ?” ‘Oh, it’s Brazer’s dog, that’un be,” said Giles, with a deep amount of-scorn; “I know Azm well enough.” “Then how can it be Don? And we could not bring home another man’s dog.” Giles paused. His eyes had a far-off look in them, as if seeking for something they could not find. ‘““Master Johnny,” he said, “I can’t rightly grasp things. All the way home I’ve been trying to put two-and-two together, I am trying at it still, and I can’t do it anyhow. Don’t it seem odd to you, sir, that Standish should have got Brazer’s dog, Rover, into his hands just at the very time we are suspecting he has got Don into ’em ?” I did not know. I had not thought about it. | ‘He has that dog of Brazer’s as a blind. A blind, and nothing else, sir. He has captured our dog, safe and sure, and is keeping him hid up somewhere till the first storm of the search is over, when he'll be able to dispose of him safely.” | COMmiclbooxks.com ©)