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the country had reached him; he had acted on it, but without result. I was surprised to hear him address me by name, and looking at him more narrowly, I recog nized him for the policeman Waby. This young man had always expressed so grateful a sense of my attendance on his sister, and had, indeed, so notably evinced his gratitude in prosecuting with Margrave the inquiries which terminated in the discovery of Sir Philip Derval's murderer, that I confided to him the name of the wanderer, of which he had not been previously informed; but which it would be, indeed, impossible to conceal from him should the search in which his aid was asked prove successful-as he knew Miss Ashleigh by sight. His face immediately became thoughtful. He paused a minute or two, and then said:

"I think I have it, but I do not like to say; I may pain you, sir."

"Not by confidence; you pain me by concealment.” The man hesitated still; I encouraged him, and then he spoke out frankly.

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Sir, did you never think it strange that Mr. Margrave should move from his handsome rooms in the hotel to a somewhat uncomfortable lodging, from the window of which he could look down on Mrs. Ashleigh's garden? I have seen him at night in the balcony of that window, and when I noticed him going so frequently into Mrs. Ashleigh's house during your unjust detention, I own, sir, I felt for you"

"Nonsense! Mr. Margrave went to Mrs. Ashleigh's

house as my friend. He has left L weeks ago. What has all this to do with

"Patience, sir; hear me out. I was sent from Lto this station (on promotion, sir) a fortnight since, last Friday, for there has been a good deal of crime hereabouts; it is a bad neighborhood, and full of smugglers; some days ago, in watching quietly near a lonely house, of which the owner is a suspicious character down in my books, I saw, to my amazement, Mr. Margrave come out of that house come out of a private door in it, which belongs to a part of the building not inhabited by the owner, but which used formerly, when the house was a sort of inn, to be let to night-lodgers of the humblest description. I followed him; he went down to the sea-shore, walked about, singing to himself; then returned to the house, and re-entered by the same door. I soon learned that he lodged in the house

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had lodged there for several days. The next morning, a fine yacht arrived at a tolerably convenient creek about a mile from the house, and there anchored. Sailors came ashore, rambling down to this town. The yacht belonged to Mr. Margrave; he had purchased it by commission in London. It is stored for a long voyage. He had directed it to come to him in this outof-the-way place, where no gentleman's yacht ever put in before, though the creek, or bay, is handy enough for such craft. Well, sir, is it not strange that a rich young gentleman should come to this unfrequented sea-shore, put up with accommodation that must be of the rudest

kind, in the house of a man known as a desperate smuggler, suspected to be worse?-order a yacht to meet him here; is not all this strange? But would it be strange if he were waiting for a young lady? And if a young lady has fled at night from her home, and has come secretly along by-paths, which must have been very fully explained to her beforehand, and is now near that young gentleman's lodging, if not actually in itif this be so, why, the affair is not so very strange after all. And now do you forgive me, sir?"

"Where is this house? Lead me to it."

"You can hardly get to it except on foot; rough walking, sir, and about seven miles off by the shortest cut." 'Come, and at once; come quickly. We must be there before before

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"Before the young lady can get to the place. Well, from what you say of the spot in which she was last seen, I think, on reflection, we may easily do that. I am at your service, sir. But I should warn you that the owners of the house, man and wife, are both of villanous character-would do anything for money. Mr. Margrave, no doubt, has money enough; and if the young lady chooses to go away with Mr. Margrave, you know I have no power to help it."

"Leave all that to me; all I ask of you is to show me the house.”

We were soon out of the town; the night had closed in; it was very dark, in spite of a few stars; the path was rugged and precipitous, sometimes skirting the very

brink of perilous cliffs; sometimes delving down to the and pain

sea-shore there stopped by rock or wave

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fully rewinding up the ascent.

"It is an ugly path, sir, but it saves four miles; and anyhow the road is a bad one."

We came, at last, to a few wretched fishermen's huts. The moon had now risen, and revealed the squalor of poverty-stricken, ruinous hovels; a couple of boats moored to the shore; a moaning, fretful sea; and at a distance, a vessel, with lights on board, lying perfectly still at anchor in a sheltered curve of the bold, rude shore. The policeman pointed to the vessel.

"The yacht, sir; the wind will be in her favor if she sails to night."

We quickened our pace as well as the nature of the path would permit, left the huts behind us, and, about a mile farther on, came to a solitary house, larger than, from the policeman's description of Margrave's lodgment, I should have presupposed: a house that in the wilder parts of Scotland might be almost a laird's; but even in the moonlight it looked very dilapidated and desolate. Most of the windows were closed, some with panes broken, stuffed with wisps of straw; there were the remains of a wall round the house; it was broken in some parts only its foundation left. On approaching the house, I observed two doors - one on the side fronting the sea, one on the other side facing a patch of broken ground that might once have been a garden, and lay waste within the enclosure of the ruined

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wall, encumbered with various litter- heaps of rubbish, a ruined shed, the carcass of a worn-out boat. This latter door stood wide open the other was closed. The house was still and dark, as if either deserted, or all within it retired to rest.

"I think that open door leads at once to the rooms Mr. Margrave hires; he can go in and out without disturbing the other inmates. They used to keep, on the

side which they inhabit, a beer-house, but the magistrates shut it up; still it is a resort for bad characters. Now, sir, what shall we do?"

"Watch separately. You wait within the enclosure of the wall, hid by those heaps of rubbish, near the door; none can enter but what you will observe them. If you see her, you will accost and stop her, and call aloud for me; I shall be in hearing. I will go back to the high part of the ground yonder-it seems to me that she must pass that way; and I would desire, if possible, to save her from the humiliation, the the shame of coming within the precincts of that man's abode. I feel I may trust you now and hereafter. It is a great thing for the happiness and honor of this poor young lady and her mother, that I may be able to declare that I did not take her from that man, from any man from that house, from any house. You comprehend me, and will obey? I speak to you as a confidant a friend."

"I thank you with my whole heart, sir, for so doing. You saved my sister's life, and the least I can do is to

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