Adventure Magazine Cover, October 1911 — page 181: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Woman With the Wolves ently he sat down—and the photo of the woman that was taken in Petersburg was gone. “Of course, Major Stark’s name is John. That would be ‘Jack’ to his girl,” said the detective. “I thought of that this morning, out there. If this boy zs Stark, it is Stark as he was ten years ago, judging from the latest photo of hm. It struck me that I might do worse than hunt for ‘Mary’— grown ten years or so older. Now this locket belonged to ‘Mary’ anyhow—men don’t carry lockets much and it’s inscribed to her, and it’s not altogether crazy to assume that ‘Mary’ dropped the locket. At any rate there’s a chance of it. Now, this isn’t Lon- don where there’s a hundred Marys to the acre. This is the New Forest, where there’s about one to the square mile, and I fancy that one of these Marys could tell us a good bit about Major John Stark if we can find her. ‘“That’s the conclusion I had come to by the time I had finished tracking that horse’s hoofs from the patch of cut turf. It was easy enough to follow where he went, al- though it twisted and turned in the most aimless fashion. No horse with a rider on its back would have twisted about like it. “T followed the track for about seven hours to-day and it brought me out to the highroad near the Stony Cross Hotel. It was the hostler of that hotel who found the horse without a rider. I went into the hotel and had something to eat and thought itover. Then I saw the hostler. Now, listen a moment, gentlemen!”’ The tone of the detective had taken on an edge, a keenness. He was speaking now quickly, tensely, as a man hot on the trail of another speaks. Torrance was watching him intently. ‘“‘Major Stark left here at eleven in the morning. He cantered straight toward the spot where the turf has been cut. He got there say at cleven-twenty. Then there’s a blank—so much time unaccounted for. Presently his horse gallops away from the spot—gallops say three miles, and then drifts about, feeding here and there, just wandering; and eventually strikes the hard road. He drifts up to the hotel at about four o’clock, just as it was getting dark, the groom said. Nothing much scems to have been done to find out what became of the Major until next morning. Then the groom, starting at nine, followed up the tracks of the horse from his end and arrived at the cut 1127 patch of turf at about two o’clock, and from there came to this house. ‘He didn’t seem to learn much from the cut turf, but it helped me. For I had ex- amined it, as you know, and, after my talk with the hostler to-day, I know that the turf was cut between eleven-thirty last Monday and two o’clock on Tuesday. Allowing four hours for cutting—it’s a fair-sized patch— we find that the Major vanished between eleven-thirty Monday and ten o’clock Tuesday. It’s not much to know, per- haps, but it’s something. Particularly if ‘Mary,’ whenever we find her or any of her men folk has such a thing as a re- cently used turf spade.” THE detective shook his ) ruefully. “TI wish I’d arrived at Stony Cross Hotel on Monday instead of Wednesday,” he said. “If only I’d decided to see Rufus’ Stone before Stonehenge, it would have made a difference.” I gathered that Waynill had been taking a bleak holiday seeing the sights of Wiltshire and Hampshire, when, arriving at Stony Cross Hotel (the hostelry near Rufus’ Stone), he had chanced upon the mysterious dis- appearance of Major Stark. “Well, the next thing was to see if I could find ‘Mary,’ or at any rate, the owner of the locket, and it seemed to me that I couldn’t go far wrong if I started among the maids at the only house with women in it near the spot—No-Man’s Court. As there’s been enough time wasted in this case as it is, al- though it was nearly dark when I started, I set off to have a look at the household at No-Man’s Court.” head CHAPTER IV THE MAIT AT THE WOLF-DENS HAD been told about the wolves that the Princess keeps— queer pects, but I’ve heard of queerer,” he continued, “and I don’t mind admitting that if I’d brought a revolver I should have dropped it in my pocket before I started from the hotel. I’m not one of the brave ones where wild animals are concerned. I’m not ashamed to admit that bad-tempered big dogs worry me if I’m unarmed, and the fear of the wolf seems to me to be thoroughly implanted into every kiddie before he gets away from CO CloOOOLKS C©