me directly afterwards. I saw him go into a house. He has grown a beard,
and he is evidently living as a quiet and respected British resident. It
was a capital idea of his, for he is as safe here as he would be if he
were up in a balloon. I intended to look him up when I got back again
into Paris, but you see circumstances prevented my doing so."

"Of course you will get him arrested as soon as the siege is over,
Cuthbert. I am very glad that he is found."

"Well, I don't know that I had quite made up my mind about that. I don't
suppose that he made off with any great sum. You see the companies he
bolstered up with the bank's money, all smashed at the same time. I
don't suppose that he intended to rob the bank at the time he helped
them. Probably he had sunk all his savings in them, and thought they
would pull round with the aid of additional capital. As far as I could
make out, from the report of the men who went into the matter, he did
not seem to have drawn any money at all on his own account, until the
very day he bolted, when he took the eight or ten thousand pounds there
was in the safe. No. I don't think I meant to hand him over or indeed to
say anything about it. I thought I would give him a good fright, which
he richly deserves, and then ask him a few questions. I have never quite
understood how it was that dear old dad came to buy those shares. I did
inquire so far as to find out it was Cumming himself who transferred
them to him, and I should really like to hear what was said at the time.
If the man can prove to me that when he sold them he did not know that
the bank was going to break, I should have no ill-will against him, but
if I were sure he persuaded him to buy, knowing that ruin would follow,
I would hunt him down and spare no pains to get him punished."

"Why should he have persuaded your father to buy those shares?"

"That's just what I cannot make out. He could have had no interest in
involving him in the smash. Besides they were not on intimate terms in
any way. I cannot imagine that my father would have gone to him for
advice in reference to business investments. It was, of course, to your
father he would have turned in such matters."

"How long had he been a shareholder?"

"He bought the shares only two months before his death, which makes the
matter all the more singular."

"What did father say, Cuthbert?" the girl said, after a short pause. "I
suppose you spoke to him about it."

"He