ying at
the farm next day, but as he stood outside the house in the afternoon
his host came up.

"There were two men on the Jedburgh road asking about a stranger on a
walking tour."

"Ah!" said Foster. "Do you know whether they asked if the man they
wanted wore a glove?"

"They did that!"

Foster pondered. He was being searched for, and his host knew he was
the man inquired about, but the old fellow's face was expressionless.

"Since I didn't get so far as the road, they'd learn nothing."

The other's eyes twinkled. "I wouldna' say they would find out much if
they cam' up here."

"Well," said Foster, "I don't know yet if I'll go on to-day or not."

"Ye ken best aboot that," the farmer answered with Scottish dryness.
"I dinna' see much objection if ye're for stopping another night."

He went off, but Foster felt satisfied that he was safe with him, and
presently strolled round to the peat-stack where he sat down in the
sun. There was a hollow where the peats had been pulled out, and the
brown dust was warm and dry. Lighting his pipe, he began to think. He
was being watched, but whether by the police, or Daly, or somebody
else, there was nothing to show. He did not think his poaching
adventure had much to do with it, but he had taken the packet to
Newcastle, although he had been warned against this. There was a
mystery about the packet.

For a time he got no further, and as he sat, gazing vacantly across the
moor, the sun went behind a cloud and the freshening wind whistled
round the stack. It got cold and Foster's pipe burned out, but he did
not move. Hitherto he had been working in the dark, feeling for a
clew, but he began to see a glimmer of light and presently clenched his
fist with an exclamation. The light dawned on him in an illuminating
flash.

He had been tricked and made a tool. Carmen had acted by her father's,
or somebody else's, orders when she gave him the packet, and the man in
Edinburgh had enclosed something before he sent him on to Newcastle.
Nobody would suspect him and that was why he had been entrusted with
the packet in Canada. It was now clear that he had been made use of to
carry the stolen bonds to Great Britain. Carmen, of course, knew
nothing about them, but had been influenced by Daly. Perhaps she was
in love with him, but in the meantime this did not matter. Foster
filled his pipe again, because he meant to solve the puzzle while the
light was clear and his brai