ord.

3. Dr. James Rustler, Columbia University.

4. Howard Fry, M.A., Ph.D., Trinity College, Cambridge.

5. Professor Potter, F.R.S., University of St. Andrews.

6. Professor Wilkinson, University of Harvard.

7. Jones Harvey, F.G.S., London, England.

'In Heaven's name,' asked the earl, 'what means this mystification? Miss
McCabe, Melissa, do not trifle with me. Is this part of the great
American Joke? You are playing it pretty low down on me, Melissa!' he
ended, the phrase being one of those with which she had made him
familiar.

She laughed hysterically: 'It's honest Injun,' she said, and in the
briefest terms she told him (what he knew very well) the conditions on
which her future depended.

'They are a respectable crowd, I don't deny it,' she went on, 'but, oh,
how dull! That Mr. Jenkins, I saw him at your Commemoration. He gave us
luncheon, and showed us dry old bones of beasts and savage notions at the
Museum. I _druther_ have been on the creek,' by which name she intended
the classical river Isis.

'Dr. Hiram P. Dodge is one of our rising scientists, a boss of the
Smithsonian Institute. Well, Washington is a finer location than Oxford!
Dr. Rustler is a crank; he thinks he can find a tall talk mummy that
speaks an unknown tongue.'

'A Toltec mummy? Ah,' said Bude, 'I know where to find one of _them_.'

'Find it then, Alured!' exclaimed Miss McCabe, blushing scarlet and
turning aside. 'But you are not on the list. You are an idler, and not
scientific, not worth a red cent. There, I've given myself away!' She
wept.

They were alone, beneath the walls of a crumbling fortalice of Lochiel.
The new risen moon saw Bude embrace her and dry her tears. A nameless
blissful hope awakened in the fair American; help there _must_ be, she
thought, with these strong arms around her.

She rapidly disposed of the remaining names: of Howard Fry, who had a red
beard; of Professor Potter of St. Andrews, whose accent was Caledonian;
of Wilkinson, an ardent but unalluring scientist. 'As for Jones Harvey,'
she said, 'I've canvassed everywhere, and I can't find anybody that ever
saw him. I am more afraid of him than of all the other galoots; I don't
know why.'

'He is reckoned very learned,' said Bude, 'and has not been thought ill-
looking.'

'Do tell!' said Miss McCabe.

'Oh, Melissa, can you even _dream_ of another in an hour like this?'

'Did you ever see Jones Harvey?'

'Yes, I have met h