CHAPTER VII

THE COLONEL IS SURPRISED

"This," said Colonel Ashley to himself, as he glided rapidly along the
street, "is very much like old times--very much! I never expected to
do any shadowing again. What's that Walton says about man proposing
and Providence disposing? Or was it Walton? I must look it up.
Meanwhile--"

Continuing his musing, and with a satisfied smile on his face, a smile
that might indicate that the colonel was not so very much averse to
giving over his fishing for the time being to take up his profession
once more, he followed Aaron Grafton as the merchant left the jewelry
store.

"I wonder," mused the colonel, "what his object was in coming to the
Darcy place, and nosing around as he did? There must have been some
object. A man such as he is doesn't do things like that for fun. And
it wasn't mere curiosity, either. If it was, he'd have been at the
place before, when the evidences of the crime were there to be stared
at by those who care for such things.

"And that Aaron Grafton hasn't been there since I was forced into this
thing, I'm positive. For I _was_ forced into it," grumbled the old
detective. "I just couldn't resist the pleading of her eyes. It isn't