BY
ROBERT BARR
AUTHOR OF
'IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS,' 'IN A STEAMER CHAIR,' 'FROM WHOSE BOURNE,'
ETC.
WITH EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS BY HAL HURST
1896
TO
MY FRIEND
HORACE HART
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
'I HAD NO INTENTION OF INSULTING YOU' Frontispiece
WENTWORTH SHOWED HER HOW TO TURN IT ROUND
MISS JENNIE ALLOWED HIM TO ADJUST THE WRAPS AROUND HER
'OH, YES! YOU WILL STAY,' CRIED THE OTHER
SHE WALKED ALONE UP AND DOWN THE PROMENADE
SHE SPRANG SUDDENLY TO HER FEET
'YOU HAVE A PRODIGIOUS HEAD FOR BUSINESS'
EDITH LONGWORTH HAD SAT DOWN BESIDE HIM
The managing editor of the New York Argus sat at his desk with a deepfrown on his face, looking out from under his shaggy eyebrows at theyoung man who had just thrown a huge fur overcoat on the back of onechair, while he sat down himself on another.
'I got your telegram,' began the editor. 'Am I to understand from it thatyou have failed?'
'Yes, sir,' answered the young man, without the slightest hesitation.
'Completely?'
'Utterly.'
'Didn't you even get a synopsis of the documents?'
'Not a hanged synop.'
The editor's frown grew deeper. The ends of his fingers drummed nervouslyon the desk.
'You take failure rather jauntily, it strikes me,' he said at last.
'What's the use of taking it any other way? I have the consciousness ofknowing that I did my best.'
'Um, yes. It's a great consolation, no doubt, but it doesn't count inthe newspaper business. What did you do?'
'I received your telegram at Montreal, and at once left for BurntPine—most outlandish spot on earth. I found that Kenyon andWentworth were staying at the only hotel in the place. Tried to wormout of them what their reports were to be. They were very polite, butI didn't succeed. Then I tried to bribe them, and they ordered me outof the room.'
'Perhaps you didn't offer them enough.'
'I offered double what the London Syndicate was to pay them for makingthe report, taking their own word for the amount. I couldn't offer more,because at that point they closed the discussion by ordering me out ofthe room. I tried to get the papers that night, on the quiet, out ofWentworth's valise, but was unfortunately interrupted. The young menwere suspicious, and next morning they left for Ottawa to post thereports, as I gathered afterwards, to England. I succeeded in gettinghold of the reports, but I couldn't hang on. There are too many policein Ottawa to suit me.'
'Do you mean to tell me,' said the editor, 'that you actually had thereports in your hands, and that they were taken from you?'
'Certainly I had; and as to their being taken from me, it was either thator gaol. They don't mince matters in Canada as they do in the UnitedStates, you know.'
'But I should think a man of your shrewdness would have been able to getat least a synopsis of the reports before letting them out of hispossession.'
'My dear sir,' said the reporter, rather angry, 'the whole thing coveredI forget how many pages of foolscap paper, and was the most mixed-upmatter I ever saw in