of Yorkshire is never in
a hurry. The general complaint of me is concerning my wild rapidity."

"You are like the grocer, whose goods, if they have any fault at all,
have the opposite one to what the customer finds in them. Well, good-by,
Mordacks. You are a trusty friend, and I thank you."

These words from Sir Duncan Yordas were not merely of commonplace.
For he was a man of great self-reliance, quick conclusion, and strong
resolve. These had served him well in India, and insured his fortune;
while early adversity and bitter losses had tempered the arrogance of
his race. After the loss of his wife and child, and the breach with all
his relatives, he had led a life of peril and hard labor, varied with
few pleasures. When first he learned from Edinburgh that the ship
conveying his only child to the care of the mother's relatives was lost,
with all on board, he did all in his power to make inquiries. But
the illness and death of his wife, to whom he was deeply attached,
overwhelmed him. For while with some people "one blow drives out
another," with some the second serves only to drive home, deepen, and
aggravate the first. For years he was satisfied to believe both losses
irretrievable. And so he might still have gone on believing, except for
a queer little accident.

Being called to Calcutta upon government business, he happened to see a
pair of English sailors, lazily playing, in a shady place by the side of
the road, at hole-penny. One of them seemed to have his pocket cleared
out, for just as Sir Duncan was passing, he cried, "Here, Jack, you give
me change of one of them, and I'll have at you again, my boy. As good as
a guinea with these blessed niggers. Come back to their home, I b'lieve
they are, same as I wish I was; rale gold--ask this gen'leman."

The other swore that they were "naught but brass, and not worth a copper
farden"; until the tars, being too tipsy for much fighting, referred the
question to Sir Duncan.

Three hollow beads of gold were what they showed him, and he knew them
at once for his little boy's buttons, the workmanship being peculiar to
one village of his district, and one family thereof. The sailor would
thankfully have taken one rupee apiece for them; but Sir Duncan gave him
thirty for the three--their full metallic value--upon his pledging honor
to tell all he knew about them, and make affidavit, if required. Then
he told all he knew, to the best of his knowledge, and swore to it when