"I wonder if she'll keep her word," he murmured. "I wonder—"
He slipped the letter quickly into another plain envelope, one of a miscellaneous collection of papers in his pocket, and returned it to the boy, retaining the covering he had been obliged to tear open, for it had been sealed.
"There you are," he said. "And you needn't say anything to my friend about the fishing. I want to surprise him. Just don't say anything about me.
"And here's half a dollar, Sonny. Could I hire you to take me to that brook you spoke of, where you say there are such big fish?"
"Sure you could," the boy answered eagerly, as he pocketed the money.
"I know a lot about fishing."
"All right. I may call on you. Trot along now, and remember—don't say anything. This is to be a surprise!"
"Sure, I know," and with a precocious wink the lad passed on into the ever lengthening shadows.
"I think," observed the colonel to himself, as he watched the boy making his way back toward the station, "that I'll make a little change in the old saying, and follow the woman instead of looking for her, since I know where she is already."
Back then to the peaceful little village went the fisherman, and, reaching the house where the boy had left the note, taking therefrom its answer, Colonel Ashley waited with all the patience that might characterize a waiting beside some fishing stream.
But his patience was not tried long, for presently a veiled woman emerged from the house. She walked away rapidly the detective following unseen.