me about you," said he to me about a week after
this; "you are not to be shipped off next time. They 've found something
else in your case now, which, they say, will puzzle the twelve judges.
Mayhap you 'd like to read it, if I could get you the newspaper?"

"It were kinder to leave me as I am," replied I. "He who can only awake
to sorrow had better be let sleep on."

"Just as you please, my man," rejoined he, gruffly; "though, if I were
you, I 'd like to know that my case was not hopeless."

"You fancy that it matters to me whether my sentence be seven years or
seventy; whether I be condemned to chains here, or hard labor there, or
mere imprisonment without either; but I tell you that for the terms of
the penalty I care almost nothing. The degradation of the felon absorbs
all the rest. When the law has once separated from all save the guilty,
it has done its worst."

This was the second attempt he made to stimulate my curiosity. His third
venture was more successful.

"So, Gervois," said he, seating himself opposite me, "they 're on the
right scent at last in your business; they're likely to discover the
real heir to that property you tried for."

"What do you mean?" asked I.

"Why, it seems somehow there is, or there ought to be somewhere, a young
fellow, a son to this same Carew; and if what the newspapers here say be
true, his right to the estate can be soon established."

I stared at him with amazement, and he went on.

"Listen to this: 'Our readers cannot fail to remember a very remarkable
suit which lately occupied no small share of public attention, by the
efforts of a fraudulent conspiracy to undermine the title of one of the
largest landed proprietors in this kingdom. It would appear now that
some very important discoveries have been made in America respecting
this claim, particulars of which have been already forwarded to England.
As the parties who have made these discoveries may soon be expected
in this country, it is not impossible that we may soon hear of another
action of ejectment, although on very different grounds, and with very
different results from the late one.'"

A very few days after this there appeared another and still more
remarkable paragraph, copied from the "London Chronicle," which ran
thus:--

"We mentioned a few days back that an estate, the claim to which was the
subject of a late most remarkable lawsuit, was likely again to furnish
matter for the occupation of the gentlem