Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-05-14

Hassan! i is not my name! He in
suits me! l will have back my kodak
and go from this house, which l took
for respectable inn where a tired man
/ could rest"
/ Il will save you the trouble of TAX
ing out the plates said, land then
| you may have your camera again
A pair of goggling, yellow eyes flash
ed fury at me, but the threat knew no
fulfilment. The loathsome hands which
had recognized, wrung their long,
| hairy digits nervously together, but
Bills reminder had been taken to
heart. l knew we'll enough that the
| two men would have asked no greater
! JOY than to kill me, if they could have
| done it stealthily and with safety for
| themselves. But I belonged to the
master; my bones might not be crunch
ed until he had picked them-if he
could.
| drew out the plates and held them
in the light. The amateur photogra-
pher had not done his work with the
| skill which Mr.. Smith seemed usually
able to exact from his servants, and,
consequently, I had saved myself from
i knew not what
did not believe that this man had
been sent to Edinburgh for the sole
purpose of catching me with a snap
shot, and l would have given some
thing if his motives-or IIr. Smiths
| motives-could have been laid bare to
me. But instinctively | felt that tA's
pair of minor villains were not men
whom my scant resources could br,be
into betraying their vile trust l had
got the better OF them in ore small
way, because l had, luckily, quick ear
and an observant eye ] must, for the
present, be satisfied with that.
l set the camera down on the counter,
maliciously putting there also few
shillings to buy new plates" and then
took myself off unmolested but alert
ly curious as to what should follow.
The telegram which l had just re-
ceived was couched in somewhat am
biguous terms, but unless l were being
fooled I might take it to mean that, so
far, | had played my hand successfully
and had hoodwinked Mr.. Smith. I saw
no reason to suppose, even from the
appearance in Edinburgh of Hassan,
shorn of his Asiatic properties" that
my plan had miscarried. | had wired
in cypher the day before, the message
purporting to come from the detective,
as previously arranged, that every de-
tail of the programme had been per-
formed. The detective had been true
to my interests and his own, or so it
would appear, since not only had he a
stake to play for, but he had been kept
carefully within certain bounds which
he had not transgressed. If h9 had
even attempted to do so, either in
Glasgow or in Edinburgh, the hotel
would have been alarmed, and l must
have learnt all that had occurred.
Considering these things and the
precautions l had taken for Lance, l
thought l might fairly salve my soul
with the conviction that, even if my
detective were not the only one en-
ployed on the errand by Mr.. Smith,
my derelictions could scarcely yet be
known to the enemy. l felt sure that
| had eluded pursuers early this morn
ing between the Spinning jimmy and
my hotel; and now, as | had a cab
and these men had not, I hoped TO
elude them again, pay the bill, and
hustle my wretched little prisoner out
of the way before they could get upon
my track.
1 had not written my own name in
the visitors book, but should Hassan
discover the hotel at which l had been
stopping in Edinburgh, description
of me and inquiries would speedily
elicit the fact that such man had ar
rived with another, who had the ap-
pearance of valet, and a young lady,
mentioned as his sister. But my hope
was that he would not at once find the
hotel; that if he did, now that he had
no photograph to show, the fact that
person answering his description had
come with servant as well as a lady,
might possibly put him off the scent
until | had reached Mr.. Smith, in Lon
don. The Saratoga trunk, l knew,
would still be undisturbed in the lock-
ed room engaged by me at the Elsin-
ore, in Glasgow, and that fact, together
with the reassuring one that had ap-
parently carried out Mr.. Smiths or
ders with undertaking correctness from
the first, would count in my favor, in
eyes that spied and calculated on my
movements.
l should think that my cabman had
seldom driven so fast through the dig
nifed streets of Edinburgh; but the
inducements l had hastily offered him
were high. l hurried into the iotel
picked up my detective, and hurried
off again with him in tow. If he were
tired of our bargain I revived his