The Hunt Ball Mystery | Page 7

other down to the ground. We've every chance of
happiness."
Before Gifford could reply there came a knock at the door. The
landlord entered.
"Beg your pardon, captain," he said, "I'm sorry to trouble you, but
could you tell me whether they are keeping up the Hunt Ball very late?"
"No, Mr. Dipper," Kelson answered. "It was all over long ago. I was
one of the last to come away. We left to the strains of the National
Anthem."
Mr. Dipper's face assumed a perplexed expression.
"Thank you, captain," he said. "My reason for asking the question is
that Mr. Henshaw, who has a room here, has not come in."
"Not come in?" Kelson repeated. "Too bad to keep you up, Mr.
Dipper."
"Well, captain," said the landlord, "you see it is getting on for four
o'clock, and we want to lock up. Of course if the ball was going on we
should be prepared to keep open all night if necessary. But my drivers
told me an hour ago it was over."
"So it was. I wonder"--Kelson turned to Gifford--"what can have
become of the egregious Henshaw. I don't think, as I told you in the
ball-room, I have seen him since ten o'clock."
Gifford shrugged. "Unless he has come across friends and gone off
with them."

"He couldn't well do that without calling here for his things," Kelson
objected. "I suppose he did not do that, unknown to you?" he asked the
landlord.
"No, captain. His things are all laid out in his room, and the fire kept up
as he ordered."
"Then I don't know what has become of him," Kelson returned,
manifestly not interested in the subject. "I certainly should not keep
open any longer. If Mr. Henshaw turns up at an unreasonable hour, let
him wait and get in when he can. Don't you think so, Hugh?"
Gifford nodded. "I think, considering the hour, Mr. Dipper will be quite
justified in locking up," he answered.
"Thank you, gentlemen; I will. Goodnight," and the landlord departed.
Kelson turned to a side table and poured out a drink.
"Decent fellow, Dipper, and uniformly obliging," he said. "I certainly
don't see why he should be inconvenienced and kept out of his bed by
that swanker, who has probably gone off with some pal and hasn't had
the decency to leave word to that effect. Bad style of man altogether.
Hullo! What's this?"
"What's the matter?"
Gifford crossed to Kelson, who was looking at his shirt-cuff.
"What's this?"
A dark red streak was on the white linen.
"Hanged if it doesn't look like blood," Kelson said, holding it to the
light.
Gifford caught his arm and scrutinized the stain.
"It is blood," he said positively.

CHAPTER IV
THE MISSING GUEST
Next morning Captain Kelson took his guest for a long drive round the
neighbourhood. Before starting he asked the landlord at what time
Henshaw had returned.
"He didn't come in at all, captain," Dipper answered in an aggrieved
tone. "His fire was kept up all night for nothing."
"I suppose he has been here this morning," Kelson observed casually.
"No," was the prompt reply. "Nothing has been seen or heard of him
here since he left last night for the ball."
Kelson whistled. "That looks rather queer, doesn't it, Hugh?"
Gifford nodded. "Very, I should say. What do you make of it?" he
asked the landlord.
That worthy spread out his hands in a gesture of helplessness. "It's
beyond me, gentlemen. We can none of us make it out. I've never
known anything quite like it happen all the years I've been in the
business."
"Oh, you'll have an explanation in the course of the morning all right,"
said Kelson with a smile at the host's worry. "Don't take it too seriously;
it isn't worth it. You've got Mr. Henshaw's luggage, which indemnifies
you, and he is manifestly a person quite capable of taking care of
himself."
Mr. Dipper gave a doubtful jerk of the head. "It is very mysterious all
the same."
Kelson laughed as he went off with his friend.
"I'm afraid I can't get up much interest in the doings of the

objectionable Henshaw," he remarked lightly as they started off. "Such
men as he know what they are about, and are not too punctilious with
regard to other people's inconvenience."
"No," Gifford responded quietly. "All the same, his non-appearance is a
little mysterious."
Kelson blew away the suggestion of mystery in a short, contemptuous
laugh.
"Oh, he is probably up to some devilry with some fool of a girl," he
said in an offhand tone. "I know the type of man. They have a keen
scent for impressionable women, of whom a fellow of that sort has
always half-a-dozen in tow. No doubt that is what he came