who, I believe, have
run away now,--oh! you can guess, you can guess. He wanted my people to
carry me away somewhere, to the coast, I suppose, but they were faithful
to me and would not. Then he set his soldiers on to maltreat them. They
shot several of them and flogged them on every opportunity; they were
flogging one of them just now, I heard them. Well, the poor men made me
understand that they could bear it no longer and must do what he told
them.

"And so, Alan, as I was quite hopeless and helpless, I made up my mind
to kill myself, hoping that God would forgive me and that I should find
you somewhere, perhaps after sleeping a while, for it was better to
die than to be given into the power--of that man. I thought that he was
coming for me just now and I was about to do it, but it was you instead,
Alan, _you_, and only just in time. That is all the story, and I hope
you will not think that I have acted very foolishly, but I did it for
the best. If you only knew what I have suffered, Alan, what I have gone
through in one way and another, I am sure that you would not judge me
harshly; also I kept dreaming that you were in trouble and wanted me to
come to you, and of course I knew where you were gone and had that map.
Send him away, Alan, for I am still so weak and I cannot bear the sight
of his face. If you knew everything, you would understand."

Alan turned on Aylward and in a cold, quiet voice asked him what he had
to say to this story.

"I have to say, Major Vernon, that it is a clever mixture of truth
and falsehood. It is true that your cousin, Champers-Haswell, has been
proved guilty of some very shameful conduct. For instance it appears
that he did forge, or rather cause to be forged that Firman from
the Sultan, although I knew nothing of this until it was publicly
repudiated. It is also true that fearing exposure he entirely lost his
head and spent not only his own great fortune but that of Miss Champers
also, in trying to support Sahara shares. I admit also that I sold many
hundreds of thousands of those shares in the ordinary way, having made
up my mind to retire from business when I was raised to the peerage.
I admit further, what you knew before, that I was attached to Miss
Champers and wished to marry her. Why should I not, especially as I had
a good deal to offer to a lady who has been proved to be almost without
fortune?

"For the rest she set out secretly on this mad journey to Africa,
whither bo