va one as oper as a duck's 88; to 'which no figures would give a price. Do you follow me?' | ; 'Each word." "Good. Well--T' oat't tell you why, because I don't know, and could 'not under iit 1 did} there was some political import- "ance attached to 'these gems, and the. Sultan roped ag Forei Ba fice into it. So the Foreign 0 placed Jack in charge of the ny nbd, He iho the Evo) in ouse ab got a lot of diamond' "cutters; ma chinery for him; gave him into the charge of all the smart policemen dn London ; and what do you think thie apshot ¥' Fy $Y att piston i 8 "The Envoy, 'secretaries; and a ay servant were * murdered the night before last, the Famends yo ws and Jack vam --8 solute lean into space, not a sign of him Go be found anywhere. Yesterday Edith | sends for' me, ¢ries for half aa hour, tells me: I'm the best fellow * that ever lived, aud them 1 m jig- gered: if she didn' ind.up by. say- ing' that she ¢ouldn't marry me." The earl of Fairholme was now worked up to fever heat. He would not calm down for an appreciable period, so Brett resolved to try the effect" of curiosity. - He wrote a telegram to Lord Northallerton :-- 'Very. sorry, but I cannot leave town "at present. Please ask me Jater. Will explain reason for post- -ponement when we meet.' He had touched 'the dominant note in mankind {fot on cried the earl, fryon ready decided 'upon 'a co, of action 1' "Not ys Fl wiring to tpone a's ng fixture,". postpone a be ee sain = claimed = ; aportid] arqused. affgirdos ald terelere prt Had Shi vay." 'Nota gh ba 'engaged pn Blaha seriou 'and arranged by the} head-keeper."" An electric bell summone The barrister handed 'him Smith. tele ' outward Ligh tm woman of : should 'be A Rin _ he + {me into your confidence. men. had ta on Baith 1 Talbot a. nob wholly proof against its magic. i personally have, little faith in them," she confessed. } * "I'have nome." "Well, I will do as you 'advise "Then 1 recommend you to take I know Scotland Yard and its methods. We to} 9 do not follow the same path." yoy patios J in you and trust you," le- said the girl, i lis : the letter to Miss BES mat: and bring the answer.' a: Ee was no match for his an lo g | tagonist, ved 'He silent the way into a Tecej appedred. A minute later. he an- nounced, with. much deference, that | Miss Talbot would Mr, Brett [in the library, and conducted this mysterious visitor 'upstairs, On ov gi in the hall be solemnly observ. gy hn s aswell cop who is with the missus--shining topper. button- eo | hole, buckskin gloves, patent lea- thers, all complete, Footmen ain't in. it with the force, nowadays." Jeames expanded his magnificent waistcoat with a heavy sigh over this philosophical dictum, the poig- nancy of which: was enhanced by his'knowlédge-that the upper house- maid: had taken to, conversing with a mounted policeman. in the Park Yusing Jer afternoons off. artment . in which Brett found. B self gave ready indica: tions of the character of its tenants. Tod's "Rajasthan" jostled a vol- ume of the Badminton Library.on the bookshelves, a eopy of the Alla- habad Pioneer lav beside the Field and the Times on the table, and]. many varieties of horns made tro- phies with quaint weapons on the walls, A complete edition of Ruskin, and some exquisite prints of Rossetti's best known works, supplied a dif- ferent det of emblems: whilst the room generally showed signs of daily occuipation. 'An' Anglo-Indian uncle, artistic niece,"': was the barrister's rapid comment, but further analysis was prevented by the entrance of Miss Edith Talbot. The surprise of the pal was mu- tual Brett expected to see a young, pretty and clever girl, vain enough to believe she had brains, and suf- ficiently well endowed "with that rare commodity to be able to twist the good-natured Earl of Fairholme round her little finger. 'Young, not more than twenty-- unquestionably beautiful, with the graceful contour and delicacy bal- anced = features of ga ortrait, by o | Romney--Edith re few of the marks that a ot nee ag th the Bie signs os A mod ed in perfect taste were as obvious inet of 'her character as that 'each phase of her elear thought Sauls reflect itself in a singularly mobile face. To Sich a woman pretence wat jmpad polite foun of f gusible. life Impossible Brott readily ndersiood the ar! of Fairhalme Tallon § in fove this - fair had fallen 'Ho k Simpy bent in worship pe ad a s of his own creed. 570 the girl, Brett was equally a revelation, . Fairholme's introductory rote described the = barrister as "the artest criminal la rin Londen} = one vies 5a Youd be fale Bhe expected to ¥ sharp-featured, h rt questions. | the large, dee on room and dis- || 'So _ingenuous was 'the look from eyes which accom- panied this laration. of confi dence, that many men would have pronounced Miss Talbot. to be an | experienced flirt. * Brett' knéw bet- ter. He 'simply bowed" 'his 'acknow- ents. "What is it that you want to know 1". she_continued. . "We our- selves dre no better informed than the newspapers as to what has actu-' ally happened, save that four men have been killed as the result of a carefully planned robbery. As for my brother--"' She paused and strove hard to force back her tears. {Your brother has simply vanish-| ed, Miss Talbot. If the criminals did not scruple to leave four dead men behind, they would not draw the line at a fifth. The clear infer- ence is that your brother is alive, but under restraint."' "I can 'see that it is possible he was alive until some time after the tragedy at Albert Gate. But--but --what connection can Jack have with the theft of diamonds worth millions? These people used him 'as their tool in some manner, Why should they spare him when success had crowned their efforts 1"' '"We are conversing in riddles. Will you explain?'* 'You know that my brother is an "assistant Under-Secretary in the|W Foreign Office I" "Yes." 'Well, early in September his 'chief placed him- in charge of a special - undertaking. The Sultan had decided to have a large num- ber of rough diamonds cut and pol- ished by the best Turopean experts. They were all magnificent gems, exceedingly valuable it seems, be- ing rare both in size and purity; but one of them was larger than any known diamond. - Jack told me it was quite as big as a good-sized hen's egg. Both it and the others, he said, had the appearance of lumps of alum ; but the experts said that the smaller stones were worth more than a million sterling, whilst the price of the large one could not, be fixed: No ome but an Em- peror or Sultan would buy it. His Excellency Mehemet Ali Pasha was the especial envoy charged with this mission, and he brought cre- dentials to the Foreign Office ask- ing for facilities to be given for its f2ecution, He and the vd secre | ries w accompanied im have been killed." "Yes 1" 'said Brett, whose eyes were fixed on the hearthrug. "Jack was given the especial duty of looking after Mehemet Ali and his companions during their resi- Fdence in London. It was his busi- ness to afford them every assist- ance in his power, to procure them police protection, obtain for them the best advice attainable in the i trade; and generally place 1 the resources ritish- Government it- ith about a month--not hourly Sugaged, You understand, as once the arraagemeats were . had little further ope: ing 0 ays of pedigree md n 'tercrossing tes slecticn pre by ae. ith Professor "pith 8 ney varieties is growing a new one of their: own, wp { produced by selection over a num- f years. Professor Biffin's whedts were Red Joss and Burgoy- nes, and certainly in this particular soil and under the peculiar climatic Shoditions of the summer their sp- arance was not a kind to shake Messors King's belief in the older systems, which was represented by Snowdrop, a new white-chaffed red wheat with a good close bead. The endelian varieties are smaller in e ear, shorter in straw, and grew less closely together, while they are said also not to remain true to type. Messrs. Kings hold it to be a clear triumph for pedigree selection ; but, on the other hand, of several agri- cultural experts with whom one of our representatives went over the ground, those adhering fo Profes: sor Biffin of Cambridge are not dis- turbed. In two or three of the var: ious trials the Mendelian wheats certainly get the worst of it, but the Cambridge men point out that many factors enter into the consid- eration, that on' another soil and in another kind of weather the re- sults may be altogether different, and that the rival wheats are. after all not yet harvested and weighed against. 'each other. Amother ex- cellent wheat among the 63 trial growths on the same ground is a new selection from Squareheads Master which has not yet received a name. ' Those of. the unsophisticated to whom wheat is wheat merely would have been struck by the sight of these sixty- -th¥ee varieties, growing in strips sidechby - sde, of all colors, from greenish white to deep old gold and orange red, ' square-headed wheat and long-eared wheat, beard- ed wheat and plain wheat, wheat from France, Flanders, Egypt, from all over England. The -constant search for new and better varieties which goes on throughout the coun- try is slowly making wheat better and better, but the chief reason for the activity in experimental grow- ing is that all varieties tend to de- generate after a few years, and need to be regenerated again by special selection. One attempt which the Mendelians are now mak- ing is being closely watched by farmers. English wheat usually fetches a few shillings less per quarter in Mark lane than wheat from California, and certain kinds from Canada. The reason is that these foreign wheats are "strong- er," that is, rise better in the loaf, than English wheats. The explana- tion is believed to lie in the differ- ence of climate, but the secret is not et definitely known, and the {fendelians are now trying to breed a new English variety, which shall equal Californian wheat in strength. PRR -- SCIENTIFIC DRY-FARMING. ~ That dry-farming methods, when properly followed, are successful has just been demonstrated. by Professor Briggs, Kearney and Shantz; of the Department of Ag- riculture, who in behalf of the de- partment, have completed an in- vestigation of the dry farm in Idaho, U, 8. Professor Briggs, be- fore leaving this city, stated that in all of the travels of the commit- tee it has not seen either irrigated or non-irrigated farming whieh produced better results than were to be found on the dry farms here, in the face of the fact that the year been one of severe drought. The Woodsmansee and Webster Farm of 5,000 acres is producing 2,- 400 acres of Turkey red wheat, that will average not less than 40 bush- els when threshed. This result is obtained under dry-farming tillage nd ad the use of 30 pounds the acre. or "u Woodsmansee oi Rex- ho, has been invited to bs. The Bixth + International Dry-Farming Congress to be held in Colorado Springs, October 16 to 20, explaining his methods of til- business, utilized on his big ranch. Mr. Woodmansee is said to be oae of the most exacting farm ors in the West, and is able at the close of each year to raction of a cent. the cost of ing, harvesting and handling he vicinity of Idaho Falls ronment men found 2.9 antes grown gra at wi n Tons ull bushels to the addition to the val acres McEvoy will writs for | this paper a s:ries 'of letters from. the: west." appear from time to time un- de the above heading, and will give a picture of the great Canadian west from the standpoint of a young Ontario man going out there to make hisway. These let- ters should be full of inte.ast for every Ontario father.] No. 2. . Winnipeg, Aug. 20th, 1911. My Dear Dad:-- I am a lorg way from home now, but I didn't remember it whem I got off the train here, and almost the first person I ran into was Bill Dodson, who used to keep store over at the corners. He's been out here three years now, and he has a fine house on ome of the best utreets in town and drives an automobile. He took me in it up to his house to dinner and asked about all the folks round home. He may be oast next winter. He has done pretty well contracting. My last letter was from Heron Bay, after our first glimpse of Lake Superior. That same night, before it got dark, we stopped at Jackfish to take on coal. The C. P. R. has an immense coaling place here perched by the side of the line on the steep slope of a hill. While we wero waiting there we could see a large steam- er lying at the wharf below us. The coal was hauled up out of its hold in great buckets, which were hoisted by cables far above our heads to where dump cars were stapding on a track on a lofty trestle. As soon as the cars were full they were run off down the track to a pecket or hopper, where they were auto- matioally emptied. These pockets have chutes over a siding on which coal cars are put to be loaded. These cars are sent east to supply the engines of the .C. P. R. on the long run through placeu where coal is not obtainable. After leaving Jackfish we passed round a most remarkable horseshoe where the track looped right round the bay on a bank built up a long way above tho water. While going round the curve I could see thé engine and the first aix cars of our train from my window. At first I thought the engine belonged to another train. That night I waked about one o'clock and found that the train was standing still. I raised the blind at.my window --that is one advantage of having a lower berth--and looked out of the win- dow. Two giant buildings of a grey color towered up right outside my win- dow, and I recognized them at once from plotures as the grain elevators of Fort William. They are tremendous build ings and they reminded me from the outlines that I could see dimly against the night sky, of the pictures of Notre Dame cathedral iu Montreal. Our barn wouldn't be knee high to a grasshopper beside one of these elevators. They are enormous. They were the first thing to remind me that we were getting pretty near the West and its great wheat fields, and you may be sure I was pretty in- terested. I just gazed at them till we started off again, which was not long, and the last I saw of Fort William was a great black rugged hill standing out against the sky with electric lights twinkling in the town beneath it. I am told that this mountain was thought by the- Indians to be a sleeping giant. Well, he will sure be a surprised giant it he ever wakes up and sees Fort Wil. liam and Port Arthur at his feet, for they must be pretty busy places from what I could eee from the window, and they say that their development has practically all been in the last ten years. I woke up at Dryden, where the On. tario Government has an experimental farm, so you can judge that there must be some quantity of good agricultural land in this end of the Province. It is in a good lumbering district, too, and the large piles of lumber in a wood yard near the station are the most prominent things to be seen from the train. There is a brick yard here, too, that seems to turn out quite a lot of bricks for the country round. I was up and ready for breakfast by eight o'clock by my watch. I thought 1 would have' breakfast in the dining car for a change, but I found that I was an hour too early, as at Fort Wil- liam the watches of westbound travel- lers must all be put back an hour. It is the nearest thing to living your life over again that can be imagined. 1 would rather not live it over again just before meals, and I decided not to wait, so got my own breakfast out of the They will} .long after noon. sheet reading: -- You don't think of Indians and scal ; when. you look at the pretty, quiet lake | to-day. I saw the shops the Government w building for the transcontinental ral way at Transcona, ust six miles out' oth Winnipeg. © They are tremendous shops ° --everything seems to be on u big scale out here--and quite a town 'has grown up round them. We got to Winnipeg not The teacher said that the first European to put foot om the present site of Winnipeg was a French: | i man named La Verendrye, who came, here 180 years ago. They say that thera are 170,000 people here now, and the' place looks to be going ahead at a grest | rate. Building is going on in every aif rection, and some great buildings are being added to those which already line Portage and Main streets. The Bank of | Montreal certainly thinks that the West is going to have lpta of money, for they. are putting up a fine building that I saw, right in the heart of the town, end | it is to have a vault about a hundred feet square, the floor of which will be eighty feet below the street. That will | hold a considerable amount of money and valuables. You meet all sorts of people on the streets of Winnipeg. You can tell what a mixed population there is when the word "Office" at the Emigration bureau, has to be written in eight languages. L took a copy of it. Here it is: OFFICE. KONTOR KANZELEI KONTOOR IRODA Everybody seems to get along with English, however, so 1 guess the foreigd ers must mostly be sent out to prairies. Good-bye for the present. Loving som JIM. SKRFSTOFA BUREAU. URIAD en pn LL KING GEORGE A CRICKETER As a "Middy" He Used to Indulge li _the Game and Subsequently Played In a Match . There is only one occasion regorde in which the late King took part in formal match, namely, when in 186 he assisted I Zingari to 'detent the Gentlemen of Norfolk at San and was bowled by the first ball h{ recelved. Early in the 'sixties, when the pro, fessional cricketer attached to boven! College was the well-gnown bridgeshire player, F. Bell, he was nol infrequently summoned to Win: Castle to bowl to the Prince of Waled and the uther young and Royal mem bers of the household. But, alas! i{ has to be recorded that on his return from one of these expeditions he made the direful announcement that "couldn't make a job of 'em at all." King George, as well as his brother, the late Duke of Clarence, took an ao: tive interest in the game. His Majes ty, indeed, who as a "middy" used ta. indulge in the game on the deck of the Bacchante, at the conclusion of one day's racing at Goodwood some years ago played iu a match in Goodwood Park that was got up between the guests at Goodwood House. The team included His Majesty and an eleven , captalned by M. Cannon, the famous jockey. The former is credited with having possessed one of the most ex: pensive bats in existence, the blade being of walnut and the bat being mounted in silver. A peculiarity with | regard to the King's favorite. bat, by: the way, lles in the fact that high up: on the blade on either side of the splice appear the famous three fea. . thers that form the crest of the Prince of Wales. Queen Victoria witnessed more than one cricket match, but never one that may with accuracy be described as a first-class fixture. On August 3rd,' 1866, she, together with the Prince and Princess of Wales and other members of the Royal Family, witnessed a very close game at Osborne between the 'Royal Household at Osborne and the officers and men of the Royal yacht, which was won by the former by the narrow margin of twelve runs. The' 'match was particularly interesting for: the reason that the late Prince Leo- pold undertook the duties of scorer, 'whilst figuring on the side of they. sailors we find the late Duke of Saxed, Coburg-Gotha, one line of the scored H.R.H. the Duke of Ediaburgh, 'b Head, 10; « c Cole, b Archer, 2, 3 i Th THE BEST PRESERVES | DURING THE PRESERVING SEASON Extra Granulated Sugar 1S DAILY WINNING FR ESH LAURELS. Its uniform high quality commends "itself to all good i hasskoepess., RUIT, BEST wan, 0 TI