to him the act was veiled which
Jack saw quite distinctly.

"That is the sort of thing," was Meredith's comment when the story was
finished, "that takes the conceit out of a fellow. I suppose I have
more than my share. I suppose it is good for me to find that I am not
so clever as I thought I was--that there are plenty of cleverer fellows
about, and that one of them is an old man of seventy-nine. The worst
of it is that he was right all along. He saw clearly where you and I
were--damnably blind."

He rubbed his slim brown hands together, and looked across at his
companion with a smile wherein the youthful self-confidence was less
discernible than of yore. The smile faded as he looked at Oscard. He was
thinking that he looked older and graver--more of a middle-aged man who
has left something behind him in life--and the sight reminded him of the
few grey hairs that were above his own temples.

"Come," he said more cheerfully, "tell me your news. Let us change the
subject. Let us throw aside light dalliance and return to questions of
money. More important--much more satisfactory. I suppose you have left
Durnovo in charge? Has Joseph come home with you?"

"Yes, Joseph has come home with me. Durnovo is dead."

"Dead!"

Guy Oscard took his pipe from his lips.

"He died at Msala of the sleeping sickness. He was a bigger blackguard
than we thought. He was a slave-dealer and a slave-owner. Those forty
men we picked up at Msala were slaves belonging to him."

"Ach!" It was a strange exclamation, as if he had burnt his fingers.
"Who knows of this?" he asked immediately. The expediency of the moment
had presented itself to his mind again.

"Only ourselves," returned Oscard. "You, Joseph, and I."

"That is all right, and the sooner we forget that the better. It would
be a dangerous story to tell."

"So I concluded," said Oscard, in his slow, thoughtful way. "Joseph
swears he won't breathe a word of it."

Jack Meredith nodded. He looked rather pale beneath the light of the
gas.

"Joseph is all right," he said. "Go on."

"It was Joseph who found it out," continued Oscard, "up at the Plateau.
I paraded the whole crowd, told them what I had found out, and chucked
up the whole concern in your name and mine. Next morning I abandoned the
Plateau with such men as cared to come. Nearly half of them stayed
with Durnovo. I thought it was in order that they might share in the
Simiacine--I told them they could have the whole co