Evening star., 1924-02-24

| against young Winton for assault
with intent to murder; and the
country had begun to howI-rich
mans privilege-letting off the 'toff'
and so forth. I suppose Marquis
thought he had to get him. Marquis
went down to Hants, himself. to see
old Brexford. didn't he; and then the
public clamor drove him on
Barclay replied in a rather strange
voice:
Public clamor didn't drive Sir
Henry Marquis. 1t was a sense of
duty. a tremendous compelling sense
of duty-nothing less would have
sent Sir Henry on that awful journey
into the heart of Africa
Call it what you like" ] said
Marquis had no notion of going out
of England until after he went to
see old Brexford in Hants. That
stirred up the hornets. The penny
press said the uncle would smooth
him down. Marquis had to go after
that"
But the uncle was the hottest
hornet in the swarm; it was war to
the death with him."
He did die. didn't he?" I said. 81
saw some notice of it in the ships
bulletin on the way south"
Yes" replied Barclay; 'he took to
his bed the day after Sir Henry
Marquis visited him in Hants, and he
never got up"
Like an old man." I said, ada
mant against an offending member
of his family until it comes to the
Jail door, and then he goes soft"
BARCLAY looked again at me with
- that strange expression. But he
did not speak. He moved the maps
about on the table until he found the
one outlining Marquis expedition. 1t
had been enlarged and traced from
Sir Henry Marquis notes. 1t was
not printed map: Sir Henry had
not made a published report of the
expedition, because the government
had not borne the cost of it. l sup
,pose Marquis financed it; he was rich
and his reputation was at stake. 1t
was his boast that Scotland Yard,
while he was at the head of it's
criminal investigation department,
would not tire out on the track of
any man.
Then Barclay put the query that l
had been turning over in my mind:
DO you know who put up the
money for this expedition?'
l told him what l have written
here-MaIquis. of course.
NO" he said; "Sir Henry did not
put up the money"
Then who did?"
THE uncle" he replied; "old Brex-
ford put it up
1 was astonished.
Then he didn't go soft: he wanted
young Winton brought OUT
Barclay replied in the same even
voice.
NO." he said; "Brexford did not
want him brought out"
He was smoothing the tracing with
his hands. STOPPING over the table.
He did not seem to notice my sur
prise. He would put the tip Of his
big finger on a crease of the map
and slowly extend it.
I'VE went in too far NORTH" he said,
as in a vague comment. I'VE should
have started in on the east coast
farther down, about Mombasa. But
the report Sir Henry had indicated
Winton somewhere south of Omdur-
man, and we went in through Egypt.
But he wasn't in Omdurman. The
rumor always put him on south-you
know about desert rumors; strangely
accurate as rule, and travelling over
an immense distance, one can't under
stand how But the rumor was cor
rect, he was on south; he had fol-
lowed the White Nile, along Baker
Pasha's route, a little to the west.
Sir Henry always hoped to pick him
up somewhere along the White Nile.
But Sir Henry was going on wrong
hypothesis; he was thinking about
the movements of a man who must
consider how he will get back, and
Winton did not intend to get back"
He paused-a sort of hesitation in
the narrative.
I'VE didn't realize that for a long
time; then we had to go on or give
up. Sir Henry, of course, went on"
The "of course" abridged Marquis
whole character.
"It was an awful march south. Win
ton was always just little ahead
The desert rumors were pretty clear
about him until we passed the big
bend of the White Nile-you know it
goes off west nearly at right angle
about four hundred miles south of
Khartum-then the rumors began to
get confused. Sometimes they put
Winton on in our front and some-
times, inexplicably, to the rear of US.
We couldn't understand it,"
He drummed a moment on the table
with his thick square fingers.
X x X
r SAT down. Anything this man had
L to say about an expedition was of
interest to me. Usually he didn't talk
much. He went on:
"We thought at first that Winton
had doubled back or that we had
passed him. But there was his trail
going on ahead. We were profoundly
puzzled. 1t was like a mirage of the
mind. We were all feeling the sun
darned queer about the sun! We wore
spine pads and helmets with an inch
of cork, and the accursed desert
Bedouins marched nearly naked and
with their heads shaven.
Il got uneasy. Sir Henry made no
our scouts were beginning to see dou-
ble-the sun will do anything to you!
But they weren't seeing double; we
were being followed. The explana-
tion that occurred to us was that Win
ton had divided his force and put a
part Of it behind US But the native
trackers were positive. that the size
of, the force on in front had not di-
minished by a man. And they were
right. They pointed out a hundred
evidences in Winton's trail to show
that the same number Of persons
were on ahead"