The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1916-07-01
CHAPTER VII,
Prints.

Finoer-Prints.
Hilton Toye was the kind Of Ameri-
can who knew London as well as most
Londoners, and some other CAPITALS a
good deal better than their respective
citizens OF corresponding intelligence
His travels were i2yS;eriously bat en-
vlabiy lnterWovet with business. he
| had an air of enjc wing himself, and at
the same time making money to pay
for his enjoyment. wherever he went
His hotel days were much the same all
over Europe: many appointments, but
abundant leisure AS, however. he
never spoke about his own affairs un
less they were also those OF the lis
tener-and not always then-half his
acquaintance had no idea how he
made his money. and the other half
wondered how he spent his time. OF
his mere interests. which were many
Toye made no such secret; but II was
quite impossible to deduce a main in,
dustry from the by-products of his
levelheaded versatility
Criminology. for example. was an
obvious by.prOduct; II was no morbid
taste in Hilton Toye. but a scientific
hobby that appealed to his mental
subtlety. And subtle he was. yet
with strange simplicities; grave and
dignified. yet addicted to the express
sive phraseology OF his less enlight-
ened countrymen; naturally sincere.
and yet always capable Of some In
genuous duplicity.
The appeal Of a Blanche Macnair to
such q soul needs no analysis She
had struck through all complexities to
the core. such as 1t was or as she
might make 1t. AS yet she could only
admire the character the man had
the less. At Engelberg he had pro
posed to her inside Of two weeks"
as he had admitted without compunc-
ton at the time. 1t had taken him.
he said. about two minutes to make
up his mind; but the following sum
mer he had laid more deliberate siege,
in accordance with some old idea that
she had let fall to soften her first re-
fusal The result had been the same
only more explicit on both sides. She
had denied him the least particle Of
hope. and he had warned her that she
had not heard the last OF him by any
means, and never would till she mar
ried another man. This had incensed
her at the time. but great deal less
on subsequent reflection: and such
was the position between that pair
when Toye and Cazalet landed In Eng
land from the same steamer.
On this second day ashore. as GAIA
let sat over a late breakfast in Jer
myn street. Toye sent in his card and
was permitted to follow it. rather to
his surprise. He found his man frank
ly divided between kidneysand- bacon
and the morning paper. but In q hearty
mood. indicative Of amends for his
great heat In yesterdays argument
A palmer indication was the down
right yet sunny manner in which GAIA
let at once returned to the contentious
topic.
well. my dear Toye. what do you
think OF It now"
Il was going to ask you what you
thought. but guess I can see from
your face"
Il think the police are rotters for
not setting him free last night"
"Scruton?"
Yes. OF course. the case'Il break
down when 1t comes on next week but
they oughtn't to wait for that. They've
no right to detain q man In custody
when the bottoms out of their case
already"
"But-but the papers claim they've
found the very things they were
searching for" Toye looked non
plused. as we'll he might. by an appar-
emily perverse jubilation over such In
telligence
They haven't found the missing