labour involved. But I was not destined to escape thus
from the toils of romance. One day I chanced to read a clever article in
favour of boys' books, and it occurred to me that I might be able to do
as well as others in that line. I was working at the Bar at the time,
but in my spare evenings, more for amusement than from any other reason,
I entered on the literary adventure that ended in the appearance of
"King Solomon's Mines." This romance has proved very successful,
although three firms, including my own publishers, refused even to
consider it. But as it can scarcely be called one of my first books, I
shall not speak of it here.

[Illustration: THE DRAWING ROOM.]

In conclusion, I will tell a moving tale, that it may be a warning to
young authors for ever. After my publishers declined to issue "The
Witch's Head" in a six-shilling edition, I tried many others without
success, and at length in my folly signed an agreement with a firm since
deceased. Under this document the firm in question agreed to bring out
"Dawn" and "The Witch's Head" in a two-shilling edition, and generously
to remunerate me with a third share in the profits realised, if any. In
return for this concession, I on my part undertook to allow the said
firm to republish any novel that I might write, for a period of five
years from the date of the agreement, in a two-shilling form, and on the
same third-profit terms. Of course, so soon as the success of "King
Solomon's Mines" was established, I received a polite letter from the
publishers in question, asking when they might expect to republish that
romance at two shillings. Then the matter came under the consideration
of lawyers and other skilled persons, with the result that it appeared
that, if the Courts took a strict view of the agreement, ruin stared me
in the face, so far as my literary affairs were concerned. To begin
with, either by accident or design, this artful document was so worded
that, _prima facie_, the contracting publisher had a right to place his
cheap edition on the market whenever it might please him to do so,
subject only to the payment of a third of the profit, to be assessed by
himself, which practically would have meant nothing at all. How could I
expect to dispose of work subject to such a legal "servitude." For five
long years I was a slave to the framer of the "hanging" clause of the
agreement. Things looked black indeed, when, thanks to the diplomacy of
my agent, and to a