'tossed the bones.' You have never had that experience?"

"I can't say that I have," said Jasper, with a little smile.

"You can laugh at that sort of thing, but I tell you I've got a great
faith in it. Once in the king's kraal and once in Echowe it happened,
and both witch doctors told me the same thing--that I'd die by violence.
I didn't use to worry about it very much, but I suppose I'm growing old
now, and living surrounded by the law, as it were, I am too law-abiding.
A law-abiding man is one who is afraid of people who are not
law-abiding, and I am getting to that stage. You laugh at me because I'm
jumpy whenever I see a stranger hanging around the house, but I have got
more enemies to the square yard than most people have to the county. I
suppose you think I am subject to delusions and ought to be put under
restraint. A rich man hasn't a very happy time," he went on, speaking
half to himself and half to the young man. "I've met all sorts of people
in this country and been introduced as John Minute, the millionaire, and
do you know what they say as soon as my back is turned?"

Jasper offered no suggestion.

"They say this," John Minute went on, "whether they're young or old,
good, bad, or indifferent: 'I wish he'd die and leave me some of his
money.'"

Jasper laughed softly.

"You haven't a very good opinion of humanity."

"I have no opinion of humanity," corrected his chief, "and I am going to
bed."

Jasper heard his heavy feet upon the stairs and the thud of them
overhead. He waited for some time; then he heard the bed creak. He
closed the windows, personally inspected the fastenings of the doors,
and went to his little office study on the first floor.

He shut the door, took out the pocket case, and gave one glance at the
portrait, and then took an unopened letter which had come that evening
and which, by his deft handling of the mail, he had been able to smuggle
into his pocket without John Minute's observance.

He slit open the envelope, extracted the letter, and read:

DEAR SIR: Your esteemed favor is to hand. We have to thank you for
the check, and we are very pleased that we have given you
satisfactory service. The search has been a very long and, I am
afraid, a very expensive one to yourself, but now that discovery
has been made I trust you will feel rewarded for your energies.

The note bore no heading, and was signed "J. B. Fleming."

Jasper read it carefully,