"Then when you do use it, if ever, think of me." I laughed.
"I will," she said, quite soberly.
And little either of us dreamed how effectively she would use it one day.
The next morning, at half-past three, we drove out of the farm yard, en route for the railway station.
During our drive, we talked like two men, and when we parted at Sharon we were very good friends. I dropped her work-hardened hand reluctantly, and watched her drive away, thinking that she was the only really sensible woman I had ever known, and feeling half inclined to fall in love with her in spite of the fact that she was twenty-five years my senior.
CHAPTER III.
SCENTING A MYSTERY.
That is how I chanced to be rolling city-ward on that phlegmatic, oft-stopping, slow going, accomodation train, and that is why I was out of temper, and out of tune.
My operation had been retarded. Instead of working swiftly on to a successful issue, this must be a case of waiting, of wit against wit, and I must report to my chief a balk in the very beginning.