been proceeding when he caught sight of me. He scarcely knew what
action to take. To return to Senor Montezma's office was impossible. But
if he were going to give up his employment, what was he to do for a
living? One thing was quite certain--he could not remain in Rio, and he
could not starve. Then he remembered the offer Moreas had made him. If
the latter had returned from Buenos Ayres, here was the chance he
wanted. The thought was no sooner born in his brain than he searched his
pocket-book for the piece of notepaper on which the address was written,
and, having found it, set off to find the house. As he soon discovered,
it was at the further end of the city, a fact for which he was more than
grateful, when he remembered that I should scarcely be likely to venture
so far in search of him. At last, after half an hour's walk, he reached
the house. From the style Moreas had put on on board the steamer, he had
expected to find a comfortable, if not a luxurious residence. To his
great surprise, however, the house was situated in a back street, was
tall, narrow, and inexpressibly dirty. Every window of that dismal
thoroughfare was occupied by male and female heads, craned out in true
Rio fashion to scrutinise the passers-by. His reason for being in the
street at all, his personal appearance, even the very details of his
walk were discussed. He paid no attention, however, but when he had
located the house, entered it and made his way upstairs to the second
floor. Having ascertained from a woman whom he met on the landing that
he had selected the right door, he knocked. A voice within immediately
bade him enter, and he did so, to find himself in a large room, scantily
furnished, if indeed it could be said to have been furnished at all, and
as dirty as the street outside. Moreas, in a state of _deshabille_, was
reclining on a cane settee beside the window, and, as usual, he had a
cigar in his mouth. On seeing Max he sprang to his feet.

"Senor Mortimer, by all that's wonderful!" he cried, with an expression
of the liveliest satisfaction upon his face. "I was only thinking of you
a few moments ago, and now you turn up like the genii in the children's
fairy stories. I hope your appearance means that you have been thinking
over what I said to you some weeks back, and that you are prepared to
accept my offer?"

"It is for that purpose that I am here," Max answered. "If we can come
to a satisfactory arrangement together, I shal