AN ECCENTRIC CHASE. 2^1 



a choppy sea, are such dismal doings that before we were 

 half-way over I wished that I had made up my mind to 

 let the whole thing slide and say no more about it. But 

 then came thoughts of the excellent story some fellows 

 at the Smoking Room would make out of the affair. 

 How Charley Welton was going to make a fortune on 

 the turf, only didn't because the Judge wouldn't give it 

 to the one that got off best and finished first half way 

 round ; and that sort of thing, which would have been 

 very funny indeed with any other hero. I clambered 

 into the train at Boulogne, where it was raining harder 

 than it was at Folkestone, only hoping that Leonard 

 might not have taken refuge at the hotel in the Rue de 

 la — something that his man did not rightly remember. 



For once in the course of my expedition something 

 like luck seemed to attend my chase. Monsieur Leonard 

 had gone to the Imperial, whither I first drove, but 

 Monsieur was out for the moment: his room was 21. 

 Run to the ground at last, I thought, and giving the 

 porter, who knew us both, particular instructions to tell 

 Leonard directly he came in that I had arrived, and 

 wanted him to dine with me, I strolled down the boule- 

 vard towards an English club, of which I was a member, 

 and where I thought it possible that he might be ; for, 

 though not belonging to the club himself, many of our 

 friends did. Leonard was not there, however, though I 

 found a man who had seen him that afternoon, so I 

 returned to the Imperial. 



Had M. Leonard come back? He had, almost the 



