The Irish standard., 1908-10-10

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He fingered for Several Minutes,
cataloguing His Injuries.
with Higgins-the most discreet imag-
Unable explanation of his extraordinary
conduct would make him the laughing
stock Of his circle of friends, to say
nothing Of city that had been &C.
customed to speak of him as Mad
Maitland" for many day. Unless
All, he had it! He could pretend
ESQ long as it suited his purpose, at
all events), to have been tho man
caught and left bound in Higgins care.
Simple enough. The knocking over of
the butler would be ascribed to a nat
ural ebullition of indignation, the sub
sequent flight to hare-brained notion
Of running down the thief. And yet
even that explanation had its difficult
ties. How was he to account for the
fact that he had failed to commune
cate with the police-knowing that his
treasure had been ravished?
It was all very involved. Mr.. Matt.
land returned the glass to O'Hagan
and, grading his head in his hands,
racked his brains in vain for satis-
factory tale to tell. There were SO
many things to be taken into consid.
Grafton. There was the girl in gray.
y. Not that he had forgotten her for an
instant; his fury ragged but the higher
at the thought that Anisty's interior
ence had prevented his (Maitland's)
keeping the engagement. Doubtless
the girl had waited. then gone away
in anger, believing that the man in
whom she had placed faith had proved
himself unworthy. And SO he had lost
her for ever, in all LIKELIHOOD; the1
would never meet again.
But that telephone call?
"O'Hagan," demanded the haggarl
and distraught young man, "who was
that on the wire just now?"
Being thoroughly trained servant,
O'Hagan had waited that question in
silence. a-quiver with impatience
though he was. Now, his tongue un-
leashed, his words fairly stumbled on
one another's heels in his anxiety to
get them out in the least possible time.
Sure, an twas Teddy, sor, be the
vice av her, askin' we're ye in, and
mesilf havin' seen ye 60 out no longer
ago thin wan o'clock and yersilf sayin'
not worrud about comm back at all
a. all, pwhat was to be tellin' her,
aven If ye were lynn there on the die.
van all unbeknownest to me, which
the same mesilf can not"
"Help!" pleaded the young man
feebly, smiling. "One thing at time,
please, O'Hagan. Answer me one ques-
ton: Did she give name?"
"She did not, sor, though mesilf-"
There, there! Wait a bit. I want
to think"
OF course she had given no name; it
wouldn't be like her. What was he
thinking Of. anyway? 1t could not
have been the gray girl; for she knew
him only as Anisty; she could never
have thought him himself, Maitland.
But what other woman of his acquain-
tance did not believe him to be out Of
town?
With a hopeless gesture, Maitland
gave it up, conceding the mystery too
deep for him, his intellect too feeble
to grapple with all its infinite ramifica-
.tions. The counsel he had given
O'Hagan seemed most appropriate to
his present needs: One thing at q
time. And obviously the first thing
that lay to his hand was the silencing
Of o'Hagan.
Maitland rallied his wits to the task.
"o'Hagan," said he, this man, Snaith,
who was here this afternoon, called
himself a detective. As soon as we
were alone he raped me over the
head with a loaded cane, and, sus-
pect, went through the fat stealing
everything he could lay hands on.
Hand me my cigarette case. please"
'Tis gone, sorts not on the desk,
ut laste, pwhere I saw ut last"
"Ah! You see? Now for reasons Of
my own. which won't enter into,
don't want the affair to get out and be.
come public. You understand?
want you to keep your mouth shut,
until give you permission to open it. )"
every good, sor." The janitor-valet
had previous experiences with Matt
lands generosity in grateful memory;
and shut his lips tightly in promise
Of virtuous reticence.
you won't regret it. Now tell me
what yop mean by saying that you saw