The White Lie   By: William Le Queux (1864-1927)

BY

WILLIAM LE QUEUX

Author of "The Temptress," "In White Raiment," "The Room of Secrets," etc.

WARD, LOCK & CO., LIMITED LONDON, MELBOURNE AND TORONTO 1915

[Illustration: "He had taken her small, white hand in his, and for a moment he stood mute before her, overcome with gratitude." (Chapter XVIII.) [ Frontispiece ]

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE

I. IS MAINLY MYSTERIOUS 7

II. CONCERNS A PRETTY STRANGER 19

III. DESCRIBES TWO INQUIRIES 34

IV. DESCRIBES A TORN CARD 45

V. SECRETS OF STATE 56

VI. THE SAFE BREAKERS 67

VII. THE DOWNWARD PATH 78

VIII. REVEALS THE GRIM TRUTH 88

IX. IN THE NIGHT 99

X. HONOUR AMONG THIEVES 108

XI. THE VOW 119

XII. THE FATE OF "THE AMERICAN" 130

XIII. SISTERS IN SILENCE 139

XIV. JEAN LEARNS THE TRUTH 149

XV. HIS LORDSHIP'S VISITOR 159

XVI. JEAN HAS A SURPRISE 169

XVII. THE DARKENING HORIZON 178

XVIII. LORD BRACONDALE'S CONFESSION 188

XIX. THE GARDEN OF LOVE 197

XX. CROOKED CONFIDENCES 206

XXI. THE GREEN TABLE 215

XXII. DISCLOSES A SCHEME 224

XXIII. THE FALLING SHADOW 235

XXIV. THE BLOW 244

XXV. TO PAY THE PRICE 255

XXVI. A CHILD'S QUESTION 265

XXVII. THE INTRUDER 275

XXVIII. THE CLOSED BOX 284

XXIX. DEADLY PERIL 293

XXX. THE WHITE LIE 299

THE WHITE LIE

CHAPTER I.

IS MAINLY MYSTERIOUS.

"A woman perhaps?"

"Who knows! Poor Dick Harborne was certainly a man of secrets, and of many adventures."

"Well, it certainly is a most mysterious affair. You, my dear Barclay, appear to be the last person to have spoken to him."

"Apparently I was," replied Lieutenant Noel Barclay, of the Naval Flying Corps, a tall, slim, good looking, clean shaven man in aviator's garb, and wearing a thick woollen muffler and a brown leather cap with rolls at the ears, as he walked one August afternoon up the village street of Mundesley on Sea, in Norfolk, a quaint, old world street swept by the fresh breeze of the North Sea. "Yesterday I flew over here from Yarmouth to see the cable laying, and met Dick in the post office. I hadn't seen him for a couple of years. We were shipmates in the Antrim before he retired from the service and went abroad."

"Came into money, I suppose?" remarked his companion, Francis Goring, a long legged, middle aged man, who, in a suit of well worn tweeds, presented the ideal type of the English landowner, as indeed he was owner of Keswick Hall, a fine place a few miles distant, and a Justice of the Peace for the county of Norfolk.