out of
him, so it's no concern of mine. There you are, mister. Now, what have
you got for me?"

The captain looked doubtful and shook his head.

"I'm afraid it's not right after all," said he. "It doesn't correspond
with the particulars I have. Had you no other lodgers?"

"What did I tell you," snarled the woman, perceiving she was to be done
out of her reward after all. "Come, are you going to give me what you
promised or not? If you 'aint, clear out of here, my beauty, or I'll
break every bone of your ugly body."

And since, with a stick in her hand, she looked very like putting her
threat into execution, the captain beat a hasty retreat, chuckling to
himself at the thought of his own excellent cleverness.

"Upon my word," said he to himself as he strolled westward, "I am having
a most interesting time. What a versatile genius my co-trustee appears
to be--a tutor to an heir, a defaulting and rusticated undergraduate, a
penniless music-hall cad. Dear, dear! what a curious settlement of
scores we shall have, to be sure--or rather, should have had, had our
poor dear Roger remained with us. Heigho! what a curious sensation it
will be, to be sure, to own a fortune."

At the hotel the porter met him with a telegram. He expected as much.
He could guess what was inside. It really seemed waste of energy to
open it.

But he must go through with his melancholy functions, and he therefore
took a seat in the hall and composed his face for the worst.

"Thankful to say good night; fever abated, all hopeful.

"Rosalind."

Captain Oliphant turned pale, crushed the pink paper viciously in his
hands, and uttered an exclamation which called forth the sympathy of the
hotel servants who loitered in the hall.

"Poor gentleman," said the lady manager to her clerk, "he's got some bad
news in that telegram."

He had indeed.

CHAPTER TEN.

ROBERT RATMAN, ESQUIRE, GENTLEMAN.

The next morning, as Captain Oliphant, somewhat depressed by the good
news of last might was, attempting to write to his dear cousin
expression his thankfulness for the mercies vouchsafed to their precious
boy, he was considerably disturbed to feel himself slapped on the
shoulder and hear a voice behind him exclaim--

"Got you, my man. How are you, Teddy!"

The captain turned with, a startled face, and confronted a stylishly-
dressed man of about thirty-five, who, but for the dissipated look of
his eyes and the vulgarity of his or