He eyed me in that disdain for my stupidity which

I have never suffered from any other man.

"Well, no; to tell the truth, I was thinking of other

things during the interview."

"Your grandfather should have provided a guardian

for you, lad. You oughtn't to be trusted with money.

Is that bottle empty? Well, if that person with the fat

neck was your friend Pickering, I'd have a care of

what's coming to me. I'd be quite sure that Mr. Pickering

hadn't made away with the old gentleman's

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boodle, or that it didn't get lost on the way from him

to me."

"The time's running now, and I'm in for the year.

My grandfather was a fine old gentleman, and I treated

him like a dog. I'm going to do what he directs in that

will no matter what the size of the reward may be."

"Certainly; that's the eminently proper thing for

you to do. But,-but keep your wits about you. If a

fellow with that neck can't find money where money

has been known to exist, it must be buried pretty deep.

Your grandfather was a trifle eccentric, I judge, but

not a fool by any manner of means. The situation appeals

to my imagination, Jack. I like the idea of it,-

the lost treasure and the whole business. Lord, what a

salad that is! Cheer up, comrade! You're as grim as

an owl!"

Whereupon we fell to talking of people and places we

had known in other lands.

We spent the next day together, and in the evening,

at my hotel, he criticized my effects while I packed, in

his usual ironical vein.

"You're not going to take those things with you, I

hope!" He indicated the rifles and several revolvers

which I brought from the closet and threw upon the

bed. "They make me homesick for the jungle."

He drew from its cover the heavy rifle I had used

last on a leopard hunt and tested its weight.

"Precious little use you'll have for this! Better let

me take it back to The Sod to use on the landlords.

I say, Jack, are we never to seek our fortunes together

again? We hit it off pretty well, old man, come to think

of it,-I don't like to lose you."

He bent over the straps of the rifle-case with unnecessary

care, but there was a quaver in his voice that was

not like Larry Donovan.

"Come with me now!" I exclaimed, wheeling upon

him.

"I'd rather be with you than with any other living

man, Jack Glenarm, but I can't think of it. I have my

own troubles; and, moreover, you've got to stick it out

there alone. It's part of the game the old gentleman

set up for you, as I understand it. Go ahead, collect

your fortune, and then, if I haven't been hanged in the

meantime, we'll join forces later. There's no chap anywhere

with a pleasanter knack at spending money than

your old friend L. D."




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