gn the head driver had rejected; "they're going to move on now.
They've brought me a few presents from--from a friend of mine in the
East."

By this time the attendants had mounted the kneeling camels, which rose
with them, and swung off round the square in a long, swaying trot that
soon left the crowd far behind, staring blankly after the caravan as
camel after camel disappeared into the haze.

"I shouldn't mind knowin' that friend o' yours, sir," said the
constable; "open-hearted sort o' gentleman, I should think?"

"Very!" said Horace, savagely, and returned to his room, which Mrs.
Rapkin had now left.

His hands shook, though not with joy, as he untied some of the sacks and
bales and forced open the outlandish-looking chests, the contents of
which almost took away his breath.

For in the bales were carpets and tissues which he saw at a glance must
be of fabulous antiquity and beyond all price; the sacks held golden
ewers and vessels of strange workmanship and pantomimic proportions; the
chests were full of jewels--ropes of creamy-pink pearls as large as
average onions, strings of uncut rubies and emeralds, the smallest of
which would have been a tight fit in an ordinary collar-box, and
diamonds, roughly facetted and polished, each the size of a coconut, in
whose hearts quivered a liquid and prismatic radiance.

On the most moderate computation, the total value of these gifts could
hardly be less than several hundred millions; never probably in the
world's history had any treasury contained so rich a store.

It would have been difficult for anybody, on suddenly finding himself
the possessor of this immense incalculable wealth, to make any comment
quite worthy of the situation, but, surely, none could have been more
inadequate and indeed inappropriate than Horace's--which, heartfelt as
it was, was couched in the simple monosyllable--"Damn!"

CHAPTER VII

"GRATITUDE--A LIVELY SENSE OF FAVOURS TO COME"

Most men on suddenly finding themselves in possession of such enormous
wealth would have felt some elation. Ventimore, as we have seen, was
merely exasperated. And, although this attitude of his may strike the
reader as incomprehensible or absolutely wrong-headed, he had more
reason on his side than might appear at a first view.

It was undoubtedly the fact that, with the money these treasures
represented, he would be in a position to convulse the money markets of
Europe and America, bring society to