uld be arrested. This seems to me both
crude and vulgar. Besides, I want a murder for No. XCIX. of the
series--_The Severed Thumb_.

No, I think I know a better way out.]

. . . . .

Old John French sat beneath a spreading pear tree, and waited. Early
that morning a mysterious note had been brought to him, asking for an
interview on a matter of the utmost importance. This was the
trysting-place.

"I have come," said a voice behind him, "to ask you to beg your
daughter----

"I HAVE COME," cried the Lady Beltravers, "TO ASK YOU----

"I HAVE COME," shouted her ladyship, "TO----"

John French wheeled round in amazement. With a cry the Lady Beltravers
shrank back.

"Eustace," she gasped--"Eustace, Earl of Turbot!"

"Eliza!"

"What are you doing here? I came to see John French."

"What?" he asked, with his hand to his ear.

She repeated her remark loudly several times.

"I _am_ John French," he said at last. "When you refused me and married
Beltravers I suddenly felt tired of Society; and I changed my name and
settled down here as a simple farmer. My daughter helps me on the farm."

"Then your daughter is----"

"Lady Gwendolen Hake."

. . . . .

A beautiful double wedding was solemnized at Beltravers in October, the
Earl of Turbot leading Eliza, Lady Beltravers to the altar, while Lord
Beltravers was joined in matrimony to the beautiful Lady Gwendolen Hake.
There were many presents on both sides, which partook equally of the
beautiful and the costly.

Lady Gwendolen Beltravers is now the most popular hostess in the county;
but to her husband she always seems the simple English milkmaid that he
first thought her. Ah!

THE SECRET OF THE ARMY

AEROPLANE

[In the thrilling manner of Mr. William le Queux.]

"Yes," said my friend, Ray Raymond, as a grim smile crossed his
typically English face, looking round the chambers which we shared
together, though he never had occasion to practise, though I
unfortunately had, "it is a very curious affair indeed."

"Tell us the whole facts, Ray," urged Vera Vallance, the pretty
fair-haired daughter of Admiral Sir Charles Vallance, to whom he was
engaged.

"Well, dear, they are briefly as follows," he replied, with an
affectionate glance at her. "It is well known that the Germans are
anxious to get hold of our new aeroplane, and that the secret of it is
at present locked in the inventor's bre