while they substitute
other cards from another hiding place. I reckoned on it being there,
and it was. He cursed me, slunk out of the saloon, and was hardly seen
again during the voyage. For once, at any rate, I got level with
Mister Sparrow MacCoy.

"But he soon had his revenge upon me, for when it came to influencing
my brother he outweighed me every time. Edward had kept himself
straight in London for the first few weeks, and had done some business
with his American watches, until this villain came across his path once
more. I did my best, but the best was little enough. The next thing I
heard there had been a scandal at one of the Northumberland Avenue
hotels: a traveller had been fleeced of a large sum by two confederate
card-sharpers, and the matter was in the hands of Scotland Yard. The
first I learned of it was in the evening paper, and I was at once
certain that my brother and MacCoy were back at their old games. I
hurried at once to Edward's lodgings. They told me that he and a tall
gentleman (whom I recognized as MacCoy) had gone off together, and that
he had left the lodgings and taken his things with him. The landlady
had heard them give several directions to the cabman, ending with
Euston Station, and she had accidentally overheard the tall gentleman
saying something about Manchester. She believed that that was their
destination.

"A glance at the time-table showed me that the most likely train was at
five, though there was another at 4:35 which they might have caught. I
had only time to get the later one, but found no sign of them either at
the depot or in the train. They must have gone on by the earlier one,
so I determined to follow them to Manchester and search for them in the
hotels there. One last appeal to my brother by all that he owed to my
mother might even now be the salvation of him. My nerves were
overstrung, and I lit a cigar to steady them. At that moment, just as
the train was moving off, the door of my compartment was flung open,
and there were MacCoy and my brother on the platform.

"They were both disguised, and with good reason, for they knew that the
London police were after them. MacCoy had a great astrakhan collar
drawn up, so that only his eyes and nose were showing. My brother was
dressed like a woman, with a black veil half down his face, but of
course it did not deceive me for an instant, nor would it have done so
even if I had not known that he had often used