



Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive








Transcriber's Notes:

   1. Page scan source:
      http://www.archive.org/details/truantsnovel00maso

   2. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe].





                             THE TRUANTS






                          BY THE SAME AUTHOR


       THE FOUR FEATHERS.
       CLEMENTINA.
       MIRANDA OF THE BALCONY.
       THE WATCHERS.
       THE COURTSHIP OF MORRICE BUCKLER.
       THE PHILANDERERS.
       LAWRENCE CLAVERING.
       ENSIGN KNIGHTLEY, AND OTHER STORIES.






                             THE TRUANTS




                                  BY

                            A. E. W. MASON

                              AUTHOR OF

            "THE FOUR FEATHERS," "MIRANDA OF THE BALCONY,"

                              ETC., ETC.




                                LONDON

                SMITH, ELDER & CO., 15, WATERLOO PLACE

                                 1904

                       (_All rights reserved_)






                              PRINTED BY

                  WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,

                         LONDON AND BECCLES.




                               CONTENTS


       CHAPTER

         I. Pamela Mardale learns a very little History.

        II. Pamela looks on.

       III. The Truants.

        IV. Tony Stretton makes a Proposal.

         V. Pamela makes a Promise.

        VI. News of Tony.

       VII. The Lady on the Stairs.

      VIII. Gideon's Fleece.

        IX. The New Road.

         X. Mr. Chase.

        XI. On the Dogger Bank.

       XII. Tony's Inspiration.

      XIII. Tony Stretton returns to Stepney.

       XIV. Tony Stretton pays a Visit to Berkeley Square.

        XV. Mr. Mudge comes to the Rescue.

       XVI. The Foreign Legion.

      XVII. Callon leaves England.

     XVIII. South of Ouargla.

       XIX. The Turnpike Gate.

        XX. Mr. Chase does not answer.

       XXI. Callon redivivus.

      XXII. Mr. Mudge's Confession.

     XXIII. Roquebrune Revisited.

      XXIV. The End of the Experiment.

       XXV. Tony Stretton bids Farewell to the Legion.

      XXVI. Bad News for Pamela.

     XXVII. "Balak!"

    XXVIII. Homewards.

      XXIX. Pamela meets a Stranger.

       XXX. M. Giraud again.

      XXXI. At the Reserve.

     XXXII. Husband and Wife.

    XXXIII. Millie's Story.

     XXXIV. The Next Morning.

      XXXV. The Little House in Deanery Street.

     XXXVI. The End.





                             THE TRUANTS




                              CHAPTER I

             PAMELA MARDALE LEARNS A VERY LITTLE HISTORY


There were only two amongst all Pamela Mardale's friends who guessed
that anything was wrong with her; and those two included neither her
father nor her mother. Her mother, indeed, might have guessed, had she
been a different woman. But she was a woman of schemes and little
plots, who watched with concentration their immediate developments,
but had no eyes for any lasting consequence. And it was no doubt as
well for her peace of mind that she never guessed. But of the others
it was unlikely that any one would suspect the truth. For Pamela made
no outward sign. She hunted through the winter from her home under the
Croft Hill in Leicestershire; she went everywhere, as the saying is,
during the season in London; she held her own in her own world,
lacking neither good spirits nor the look of health. There were,
perhaps, two small peculiarities which marked her off from her
companions. She was interested in things rather than in persons, and
she preferred to talk to old men rather than to youths. But such
points, taken by themselves, were not of an importance to attract
attention.

Yet there were two amongst her friends who suspected: Alan Warrisden
and the schoolmaster of Roquebrune, the little village carved out of
the hillside to the east of Monte Carlo. The schoolmaster was the
nearer to the truth, for he not only knew that something was amiss, he
suspected what the something was. But then he had a certain advantage,
since he had known Pamela Mardale when she was a child. Their
acquaintance came about in the following way--

He was leaning one evening of December over the parapet of the tiny
square beside the schoolhouse, when a servant from the Villa
Pontignard approached him.

"Could M. Giraud make it convenient to call at the villa at noon
to-morrow?" the servant asked. "Madame Mardale was anxious to speak to
him."

M. Giraud turned about with a glow of pleasure upon his face.

"Certainly," he replied. "But nothing could be more simple. I will be
at the Villa Pontignard as the clock strikes."

The servant bowed, and without another word paced away across the
square and up the narrow winding street of Roquebrune, leaving the
schoolmaster a little abashed at his display of eagerness. M. Giraud
recognised that in one man's