can say it with the best of you."

"We have pulled along very comfortably, haven't we?" said Meredith;
"thanks to your angelic temper. And you'll deliver that packet of
letters to the governor, won't you? I have sent them in one packet,
addressed to him, as it is easier to carry. I will let you hear of us
somehow within the next six months. Do not go and get married before I
get home. I want to be your best man."

Oscard laughed and gave the signal for the men to start, and the long
caravan defiled before them. The porters nodded to Meredith with a
great display of white teeth, while the head men, the captains of tens,
stepped out of the ranks and shook hands. Before they had disappeared
over the edge of the plateau, Joseph came forward to say good-bye to
Oscard.

"And it is understood," said the latter, "that I pay in to your account
at Lloyd's Bank your share of the proceeds?"

Joseph grinned. "Yes, sir, if you please, presumin' it's a safe bank."

"Safe as houses."

"'Cos it's a tolerable big amount," settling himself into his boots in
the manner of a millionaire.

"Lot of money--about four hundred pounds! But you can trust me to see to
it all right."

"No fear, sir," replied Joseph grandly. "I'm quite content, I'm sure,
that you should have the--fingering o' the dibs."

As he finished--somewhat lamely perhaps--his rounded periods, he looked
very deliberately over Oscard's shoulder towards Durnovo, who was
approaching them.

Meredith walked a little way down the slope with Oscard.

"Good-bye, old chap!" he said when the parting came. "Good luck, and
all that. Hope you will find all right at home. By the way," he shouted
after him, "give my kind regards to the Gordons at Loango."

And so the first consignment of Simiacine was sent from the Plateau to
the coast.

Guy Oscard was one of those deceptive men who only do a few things,
and do those few very well. In forty-three days he deposited the twenty
precious cases in Gordon's godowns at Loango, and paid off the porters,
of whom he had not lost one. These duties performed, he turned his steps
towards the bungalow. He had refused Gordon's invitation to stay with
him until the next day, when the coasting steamer was expected. To tell
the truth, he was not very much prepossessed in Maurice's favour, and
it was with a doubtful mind that he turned his steps towards the little
house in the forest between Loango and the sea.

The room was the first surprise