"She is going to meet him, just as she promised in the note, though it must be galling to her pride," murmured the old detective. "I wonder if she really believes he'll keep his word—or can keep it? Well, I'll be there at the finish, and I think this will be the finish," he went on grimly, as he thrust his hand into his side pocket, where the "hooks" jingled with grim music.
As the woman walked on, she turned now and then and looked back along the fast-darkening streets.
For a moment the colonel was suspicious.
"I wonder if she has seen me?" he murmured.
He gave a quick, backward glance, and started as he saw another figure not far behind him.
"Can it be?" exclaimed the colonel. "No, it's Aaron Grafton," he proceeded with an air of relief. "He must have been at her house, and she has asked him to follow her, to make sure no harm is done. A bit foolish of him, under the circumstances. But when a man's in love—"
The colonel shrugged his shoulders and chuckled grimly.
"However, I must take care that he does not see me."
Slipping behind a tree, the colonel effected a change in hats, for he always wore a soft one and carried several collapsible ones. Then, buttoning his coat rather askew about him, to give a careless air to his attire (the colonel, normally was one of the neatest men living) he crossed to the other side of the street and then became the shadower of two instead of one, for Aaron Grafton had passed on without, apparently, noticing him.
The woman was still in sight, and before she reached the station the man who had sent the note came out and met her on the driveway. The colonel looked back and saw Mr. Grafton dodging behind a tree.