The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1908-01-24

halls and fete1 Ike regular sweet
hearts would 40 has their eyenin.s to
theirselves. hut he comes Ia MIRA.
Cheney's sometimes, you know, and
then Miss Wilson goes and sits down
along Of i'm In Mrs. Chensy's room,
and Y think from what I've heard
dropped as sometimes she goes over
| to Mr.. Allister's place, where his SITS.
ter is, and spends q evenin' there"
Engaged to be Z married, eh,
'Tunia" caid the constable. SIS that
what you think?"
"Of course do, and so does Mrs.
Cheney" .5 s,5sss,t
The news that the constable COM
municated to his inspector was for.
warded to the officials at the Yard
who had charge of the case, and nfys
titled them little.
That Miss" Wilson was a thorough
ly upright and honest woman the au.
thorities were sure. How could she,
being wife, as they knew, be con.
templating marriage? at
AS an experienced detective rejects
no theory as impossible until he has
tested the evidence in favor of it, the
Scotland Yard officer suggested to
himself that the engagement was
blind, that this young man was go.
between carrying communications
from Wilson to his wife, and it might
be, arranging for the wife to visit her
husband at his apartments.
The idea that they were engaged
would be useful one to put about to
Eaccount for the intimacy and the ex-
changed visits.
The mysterious visitor, the bearded
man who had been seen with Miss
Wilson, was not Frank Allister. The
constable was certain that he was
man of forty at least. 1t was not John
Wilson; the build, appearance, and
age were totally against such a sup.
position.
The fact that soon after her meeting
with this square-shouldered, bearded
man Miss Wilson had gone into black
did not at the time strike the detect
ives as having any bearing on their
investigation. 1t was quite possible
that the convict's wife had lost rela-
tive.
But when they put the three things
tCgether-the visit of this stranger,
the mourning CT Miss" Wilson, and
her reported engagement to Frank AL
lister-there came into the official
mind the possibility that the reason
JOHN Wilson had succeeded in eluding
the vlgilant search made for him was
that he was dead
If this was so, everything was ac-
counted for-except the visit of Mr..
Harold Buckingham to Scotland
Yard. Why should the brother of the
young baronet engaged to Miss Claire
Barton come to the police to learn if
they knew the address OF Miss Claire
Bartons friend, the wife of an ESCAPED
convice?
The chief of the Criminal Investiga.
ton department, when he heard the
report of his officers, expressed his
opinion that some movement was in
contemplation, and that if the police
assisted at all they would fathom the
mystery of John Wilson's fate, what
ever it might be.
Early one morning the inspector at
Remington telephoned to the Yard.
He had important information con.
corning the Wilson case. The broad.
shouldered man with the beard had,
on the previous evening, met Miss
Wilson near The Winery on her return
from business.
Acting on instructions given, the de.
tective who was watching the house
had crossed the road to get full view
of the man, and had been surprised to
find' that it was Bertram Hank, an ex.
Scotland Yard officer, who was now a
private inquiry agent.
Hank had appeared surprised at the
meeting for a moment, but had then
explained his presence.
Il have been employed" he said,
"by the young lady opposite to find out
where her husband is. She hasn't
heard anything of him since his es-
cape, and she came to ne to see if 1
could learn anything. She paid me my
fees, so I suppose she must have rich
friends
1 na