a year or two. There must be many
a safe spot in Germany or Italy, where a man may defy detection." And
then he ran over in his mind all the successful devices he had seen
adopted for disguising a man's appearance. Howard Vane had a wig and
whiskers that left him unrecognized by his own mother; Crofton Campbell
travelled with Inspector Field in search of himself, all by means of a
nose. It was wonderful what science was accomplishing every day for the
happiness and welfare of mankind!

The plan of escape was not without its difficulties, however. First of
all, he had no money. Davis had given him merely enough to pay railroad
fares and the charges incidental to the road, and he was living at the
hotel on credit. This was a serious obstacle, but it was also one which
had so often before occurred in Beecher's experience that he was not so
much dismayed by it as many another might have been. "Money was always
to be had somehow," was a golden rule of his philosophy, the somehow
meaning that it resolved itself into a simple question of skill and
address of the individual in want of it Aix was a considerable town,
much frequented by strangers, and must, doubtless, possess all the
civilizing attributes of other cities,--namely, Jews, money-lenders, and
discounters. Then, the landlord of the inn; it was always customary to
give him the preference in these cases. _He 'd_ surely not refuse an
advance of a few hundred francs to a man who came accompanied as he was.
Klepper alone was good security for ten times more than he needed. Must
it be confessed that he felt elevated in his own esteem when he had
resolved upon this scheme? It savored of shrewdness,--that great
touchstone of capacity which he revered so highly. "They shall see if
I'm a flat, this time," chuckled he to himself as he went along; and
he stepped out briskly in the excitement of self-approval. Then he went
over in his mind all the angry commentaries that would be passed upon
his flight,--the passionate fury of Grog, the amazement of Spicer,
the almost incredulous surprise of the Count,--till at last he came to
Lizzy; and then, for the first time in all his calculations, a sense
of shame sent the color to his cheek, and he blushed till his face grew
crimson. "Ay, by Jove! what will _she_ think!" muttered he, in a voice
of honest truthfulness. How he should appear to her--how he should stand
in her estimation--after such an ignoble desertion, was a thought not
to b