E. Phillips Oppenheim

“ They drew near to their balls, and Norman came to a standstill. He had arrived at his decision. I, at any rate, awaited it breathlessly.
“Michael,” he said, “you shall have your chance. You know my duty. You know that I am a man who generally tries to do it. Yet, to be candid with you, I have a conviction that your career as a criminal is over, and my personal inclination is to leave you alone. We will let Fate decide it. We are as nearly equal at this game as two men can be. ”

“ You are in the prime of life; excitement is as necessary to you as his sweetheart to a Frenchman or his golf to an Englishman. You have just brought off one of the finest coups which has ever been planned. ”

“ That girl is the folly of my later life. There is a touch of romance in her, a sentiment— For God's sake, Greyes, don't sit and look at me like a graven image! Be a human being and say that you understand. ”

“ I murmured, for Norman seemed still incapable of speech.
“Four years and a few months,” Michael continued. “It is a great deal to have snatched from a life which I should have been ended. I have a charming little villa, a converted farmhouse—you can see it through the trees there, a delightful garden—my violets and carnations are famous; and there are very few English flowers which I have not managed to grow. I play a round of golf whenever I feel like it, and when the wander-hunger comes, I vanish up there into the Pyrenees. Antoine, my servant, is a Basque and an accomplished mountaineer. ”

“ THE last we saw of Michael was, in its way, allegorical. As we climbed one of the grassy slopes of the golf-club on the following morning, we saw two men on the other side of the river, walking steadily away from us along the path which led across the lower chain of hills toward the mountains. They carried knapsacks on their backs and long staves in their hands. ”

“ More than once, when I broached the subject, she had evaded the question of a visit to London or Paris; but curiously enough, it was only at that moment that I realized the truth. She still feared Michael.
“There is just the one possibility,” I remarked, “that I might not be able to evade the challenge. If I do not go after Michael, he may come after me.”
It was precisely at this moment that the amazing event happened. We were a party of twelve at dinner, seated at a round table in the center of the large banqueting hall of Kindersley Court. ”

“ The orders which Lord Kindersley roared out were almost pitifully ineffective. In due course we discovered that the telephone-wires had indeed been cut, that every motorcar in the garage had been rendered useless, the stables emptied and every horse driven out into the Park. We were seventeen miles from a market town and five miles from a village, and the moor which stretched from the park gates led across the loneliest part of England. The more we discussed it, the more we realized that it was, without doubt, a most amazing coup. ”

“ Even Rimmington, who had more optimism than any other man of my acquaintance in the profession, returned to London a saddened and disappointed man.
Janet and I stayed on at Kindersley for the last meet of the stag-hounds—a day which neither of us likely ever to forget. We motored over to Exford, where our host had sent all his available horses two days before. Janet, Beatrice Kindersley and I were among those of the house party who rode, Beatrice looking remarkably well on a fine Dartmoor-bred chestnut, a present from her uncle within the last few days. ”

“ I admitted. “But the one thing which has made the pursuit of Michael so fascinating is that he is the sort of man who would never shoot a sitting rabbit. He spoke the truth when he said that the end would come when one or the other of us was driven into a corner and both were armed..... So far as I am concerned,” I added, glancing across at Janet, “I am rather inclined to let it be a drawn battle. The hunting of men is a great sport, but the zest for it passes with the years.” ”

“ All this time the business of collecting the jewelry was proceeding without interruption.
“A familiar voice, I fancy,” Michael said coldly as he lowered his weapon. “You do well to intervene, dear lady. Some day or other, I think that your husband will kill me or I him: but unless he hunts me with a posse of policemen, it will be when we are both armed and the odds are even.”
There was a little sobbing sigh from somewhere in the background. Then the silence was broken again in less dramatic fashion.
“May I speak, please?” Beatrice Kindersley asked. ”

“ I explained. “In the bag which I left at your office yesterday are clothes, jewelry, papers and other trifles of apparent insignificance. The next unknown man who dies in the hospital, of my height and build, will be wearing these clothes, and will have in his possession the other trifles I have spoken of, which have been all carefully chosen to establish my identity. The authorities will notify the French and New York police, Scotland Yard and the press. You, also, will assist in making it publicly known that a well-known criminal has passed away.” ”

“ Norman announced.
“It will not be necessary,” Michael rejoined quickly. “Tomorrow I start for the mountains. I shall be gone for a week or more. I beg that you will not hurry your departure.... May I speak to you for a moment, Janet?”
Norman made his way, without remark, to the clubhouse. He neither spoke to nor looked toward Michael again. Men are strange beings. This was the passing of the feud which left them both forsworn.
I SPARED Michael the question which I knew was upon his lips.
“Beatrice is well,” I told him. “She still unmarried.” ”

“ You know the truth, if any man does. Give her pain, if you must. Show her the ugly side. As man to man Greyes, enemy to enemy, swear that you will do this.”
“I swear,” I answered.
He must have touched his horse with his whip, unseen by me, for the words had scarcely left my lips before he was galloping away, making for the loneliest and bleakest part of the moor. I heard a stifled cry from Beatrice, a cry that was almost a sob.
“Why did you let him go, Norman? I wanted to say good-by!”
“He left some messages for you,” I answered, a little grimly.
Michael Takes Up the Story. ”

“ The ball went well and truly to the bottom of the hole. Norman again surprised me. He studied his ridiculous little putt with exaggerated care, brushed away some fancied impediment and reproved his caddy sharply for talking. When he hit the ball, he hit it crisply enough, but again with that little stab which drew it once more to the wrong side of the hole. There was a little murmur.
“I never saw such filthy putting in my life!” Norman exclaimed, looking exactly like a normal man who has lost an important match by a moment's carelessness. “Your match, Monsieur Benisande. ”

“ SO the match started. The first hole was halved in four, and from then onward commenced a struggle which I can hardly think of, even now, without a shiver of excitement. Neither was ever more than two up; but toward the sixteenth hole, I began to realize that another factor besides skill was at work. Norman topped his second shot but jumped the bunker and lay upon the green. Michael carried the bunker with a perfectly played mashie shot, but pitched upon a mowing machine and came back to an almost unplayable place in the long grass. He lost the hole. ”

“ IT was toward the close of a dinner-party at Kindersley Court, in Devonshire, where Janet and I were spending a fortnight, that our host suddenly directed the conversation to me.
“One has heard a great deal of your successes Greyes, especially during your last few years at Scotland Yard. What do you count your greatest failure?”
“My inability to bring to justice the greatest criminal in Europe.” I replied after a moment's hesitation. “I had him on my book for three years, but when I retired, he was still very much at large. We have been up against one another continually. ”

“ Michael assured him grimly. “Now, ladies and gentlemen,” he went on, after a brief pause, “our business seems to be over. Any one who leaves his seat before we reach the door, will be shot. As soon as we get there, we shall lock you in, and then you can commence your part of the fun as soon as you like. If you care for suggestions, why not leave it to Mr. Anstruther to organize a midnight steeplechase, everyone to choose his own mount—motorcar, hunter or bicycle. We sha'n't leave much of a trail but for once in a while you'll be worrying something to death that can spit death back. ”

“ There was no woman in the county more admired than she—certainly no one less spoiled. She was absolutely and entirely contented with our simple country life. I sometimes think that if she had had her way, she would never have wandered at all outside our little domain. ”

“ Let us take an automobile and watch the beautiful women at Auteuil.”
A FORTNIGHT later I read my obituary notice in a dozen papers. The New York Herald devoted a column to me, and the Continental Daily Mail followed suit. The Times dismissed me with half a dozen lines of small print, which seemed unkind when one considered the quantity of free sensational material I had afforded them. The Daily Telegraph seemed to think that Scotland Yard was at fault in having allowed me to slip out of the world according to my own time and inclination. ”

“ Tell him not to take it for granted that the first impulse of the malefactor is to place as great a distance as possible between himself and the scene of his misdemeanors. Sometimes the searching hand passes over what it seeks to grasp. ”