own.

"I have got good news," he said; "the British India mail will be here in
two days, so I shall pay off my men and go up to Aden in her, and thence
home. Of course you will come too, for, like me, I expect you have had
enough of Africa for the present. Here are some copies of the weekly
edition of the 'Times'; look through them, Mrs. Outram, and see the news
while I read my letters."

Leonard turned aside moodily and lit his pipe. How was he to find
money to take even a third-class passage on the British India mail? But
Juanna, obeying the instinct that prompts a woman to keep up appearances
at all hazards, took one of the papers and opened it, although the tears
which swam in her eyes would scarcely suffer her to see the print. Thus
things went on for ten minutes or more, as she idly turned the pages
of two or three issues of the weekly "Times," trying to collect her
thoughts and pick up the thread of current events.

But it is wonderful how uninteresting and far-away those events appear
after the reader has been living a life to herself for a year or so, and
Juanna, preoccupied as she was with her own thoughts, was about to give
up the attempt as a failure, when the name of _Outram_ started to her
eyes.

A minute later her two companions heard a sharp exclamation and turned
round.

"What is the matter, Mrs. Outram?" said Wallace. "Has France declared
war against Germany, or is Mr. Gladstone dead?"

"Oh! no, something much more important than that. Listen to this
advertisement, Leonard:--

"'If Leonard Outram, second son of Sir Thomas Outram, Bart., late of
Outram Hall, who was last heard of in the territory to the north of
Delagoa Bay, Eastern Africa, or, in the event of his death, his lawful
heirs, will communicate with the undersigned, he or they will hear of
something very greatly to his or their advantage. Thomson & Turner, 2
Albert Court, London, E.C.'"

"Are you joking, Juanna?" said Leonard after a pause.

"Look for yourself," she answered.

He took the paper, and read and reread the notice.

"Well, there is one thing certain," he said, "that no one ever stood
in greater need of hearing something to his advantage than I do at
this moment, for excepting the ruby, which may not be a true stone, we
haven't a stiver to bless ourselves with in the world. Indeed, I
don't know how I am to avail myself of Messrs. Thomson & Turner's kind
invitation, unless I write them a letter and go to live in a Ka