The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-12-08

Charles pretended to listen to him
with the deepest interest, and even re-
spect, never for moment letting hira
guess he knew for what purpose this
show OF knowledge had been recently
acquired. If we were ever to catch
the man. we must not allow him 10 see
we suspected him. So Charles played
dark game. He swallowed the geolo-
gist whole without question.
Most of that morning we spent with
them on the hillside. Charles took
them everywhere and showed them
everything. He pretended TO be polite
to the scientific man, and he was real
| ly polite, most polite, to the pOetical
| lady. Before lunch time we had be-
come quite friends.
I The Clays were always easy people
TO get on with, and, bar their roguery.
we could not deny they were delightful
companions Charles asked them TO
| lunch. They accepted willingly. He
introduced them to Amelia with sun
dry raisings of his eyebrows and con-
tortfons Of his mouth. Professor and
Mrs. FCrbes-GaskelI.' he said. half DIS
| locating his jaw with his viOlen. ef-
forts. They're stopping at the vii.
dear. I've been showing them over the
! place, and they're good enough to say
| they'll drop in and take a share in cur
cold roast mutton" which was a fire.
| que1it form of Charles pleasantry.
Amelia sent them upstairs to wash
their hands-which, in the professors
case. was certainly desirable, for his
| fingers were grimed with earth and
dust from the rocks he had been in
vestigating. As soon as we were left
alone Charles drew me into the library.
Seymour" he said. more than ever
there is a need for US strictly to avoid
! precOnceptions. We must not make Up
our minds that this man is Colonel
| Clay-nor, again, that he isn't. We
must remember that we have been mis-
taken in both ways in the past, and
must avoid our old errors. shall hold
myself in readiness for either event
and a policeman in readiness to arrest
/ them, If necessary"
"A capital plan" I murmuTed. "Stiil.
| if 1 may venture a suggestion, in what
way are these two people endeavorjlE
| to entrap US? They have no scheme
on hand-no schloss, no amaigama-
| ton"
| Seymour" my brother-in-law an
/ swered, in his boardroom style, you
are a great deal too previous. as Med
| hurst used TO say mean, Colonel
| Clay in his character as Medhurst In
| the first place these are early days:
our friends have not yet developed their
I
| they have a property to sell, or COM
pany to promote, or a concession TO ex-
plot in South Africa or elsewhere.
| Then again, in the second place, We
/ don't always spot the exact nature OF
/ their plan until il has burst in our
/ hands, so to speak, and revealed its
true character. What could have
| seemed more transparent than Med
| hurst the detective. till he ran away
| H..
| triumph? What more innocent than
White Heather and the little curate,
| till they landed US with a couple OF
| Amelia's own gems as a splendid bar
! gain? / will not take it for granted
any man is not Colonel Clay, merely
because I don't happen to spot the par
ticular scheme he is trying to work
against me. The rogue has SO many
schemes, and some Of them SO well
concealed, that UP to the moment %
the actual explosion you fail to detect
the presence of moral dynamite. There
fore. I shall proceed as if there were
dynamite everywhere. But in the third
place-and this is very impOTtant-yOu
mark my words, believe 1 detect al
ready the lines he will work upon. He's
a geOiogist, he says. with a taste for
minerals. Very good You see If he
doesn't try to persuade me before long
he has found a coal mine, whose local
ity he will disclose for a trif1ing con-
sideration; or else ne will salt the
Long mountain with emeralds. and
claim big share for helping to discOv-
er them; or else he will try something
in the neurological line 10 do me
somehow. I see it IN the transparency
of the fellows face: and I'm deter
termined this time neither to pay hin
one farthing on any pretext, nor to lei
him escape mer'
We went in to lunch. The professor
and Mrs. Forbes askell all smiles. &C.
companied us. I don't know whether
it was Charles warning to take moth.
., ing for granted that made me do so
but 1 kept a close eye upon the sus
5 pected man all the time we were al
table. 1t struck me there was some
e thing very odd about his hair. It didn't
7 seem quite the same color all over. The
locks that hung down behind. over the
e collar of his coat, were a trifie lighter
/ and a trife grayer than the black
e mass that covered the greater part Of
i his head. / examined it carefully. The
] more l did so, the more the conviction
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