was taken on the first close page; at the foot of it the tears were in
my eyes. And all that part I must pass over without a word. I have never
shown it to man or woman. It is sacred between man and man.

But the letter possessed other points of interest--of almost universal
interest--to which no such scruples need apply; for it cleared up
certain features of the foregoing narrative which had long been
mysteries to all the world; and it gave me what I had tried in vain
to fathom all these years, some explanation, or rather history, of
the young Lancastrian's complicity with Joaquin Santos in the foul
enterprise of the Lady Jermyn. And these passages I shall reproduce word
for word; partly because of their intrinsic interest; partly for such
new light as they day throw on this or that phase of the foregoing
narrative; and, lastly, out of fairness to (I hope) the most gallant and
most generous youth who ever slipped upon the lower slopes of Avemus.

Wrote Rattray:

"You wondered how I could have thrown in my lot with such a man. You may
wonder still, for I never yet told living soul. I pretended I had joined
him of my own free will. That was not quite the case. The facts were as
follows:

"In my teens (as I think you know) I was at sea. I took my second mate's
certificate at twenty, and from that to twenty-four my voyages were far
between and on my own account. I had given way to our hereditary passion
for smuggling. I kept a 'yacht' in Morecambe Bay, and more French brandy
than I knew what to do with in my cellars. It was exciting for a time,
but the excitement did not last. In 1851 the gold fever broke out in
Australia. I shipped to Melbourne as third mate on a barque, and
I deserted for the diggings in the usual course. But I was never a
successful digger. I had little luck and less patience, and I have no
doubt that many a good haul has been taken out of claims previously
abandoned by me; for of one or two I had the mortification of hearing
while still in the Colony. I suppose I had not the temperament for the
work. Dust would not do for me--I must have nuggets. So from Bendigo I
drifted to the Ovens, and from the Ovens to Ballarat. But I did no more
good on one field than on another, and eventually, early in 1853, I cast
up in Melbourne again with the intention of shipping home in the first
vessel. But there were no crews for the homeward-bounders, and while
waiting for a ship my little stock of gold dust gave o