The young lady referred to could be none other than the Girl with the High-arched Eyebrows— Hammond’s fingers gripping the note trembled. He had several times started out for the vicinity of Amethyst Island, and each time at thought of actually meeting her turned back. Now—now, armed with this note, there would be a legitimate excuse—
At the sound of foot-steps outside he hurriedly folded the note and secreted it in an inner pocket.
Sandy Macdougal plunged in and tossed a newspaper to Hammond. “One of the scalers brought it in when he came over on the government launch to-night,” he exclaimed. “See, this paper says that millionaire chap, Gildersleeve, that disappeared off a train has been seen in Montreal. Guess the gink must’ve been celebrating with a crock of bootleg hootch and passed his station, eh?”
Hammond hastily read the headlines and the story which told of a man of Norman T. Gildersleeve’s appearance being seen boarding a train west at the Windsor street station, Montreal. That was about all there was to it. He tossed the paper down in disgust. As an ex-newspaper man he could thoroughly appreciate the avidity with which correspondents and telegraph editors seize upon every tittle of rumour while a big unsolved mystery grips the public’s mind.
“Sandy,” he said, speaking his thoughts, “I’m beginning to think there’s something in all that you were telling me this morning.”
The cook paused in the act of lighting his pipe. “Any thing happened to make you believe that?” he asked casually.
“No,” replied Hammond, “but I have had proof that I am being shadowed around here, though by whom I haven’t a faint idea.”
Macdougal with ready generosity produced the revolver and a box of cartridges. “You’d better pack these,” he advised.
But Hammond had all a journalist’s contempt for firearms. “Thanks, Sandy,” he declined. “I’d rather win through without it. I haven’t carried a gun since—”
“You left the army,” supplied the cook when Hammond paused cautiously. “I knew you’d been over there too. Why don’t you wear your service button on the outside of your coat same as I do? The Big Boss, for all he don’t let on, has got a weakness for returned men.”