my vast relief, by the sudden opening of a door
behind him. Mr. Christopher Burley entered the room, looking as if he
might have just stepped from the legal chambers in Lincoln's Inn. He had
evidently made a careful toilet, his traveling costume being discarded
for a suit of sober black.

He nodded severely to Captain Rudstone, who he had seen earlier in the
evening, and I observed a slight confusion in the bearing of both,
clearly due to the recollection of their quarrel at the Silver Lily.
Then, with an affable smile, the law clerk offered me his hand.

"I am pleased to see you, Mr. Carew," he said. "I learned from the
factor that you were here. I predicted that we might meet again, if you
remember."

"I remember well," said I. "This is a small world, after all. I take it
that the quest you spoke of has brought you to the north?"

"You are right, sir," he replied. "It has led me hundreds of miles
through the wilderness, from one fort to another of the Hudson Bay
territory--truly a weary round of travel."

"And with what success?"

"None as yet; but I am not discouraged. From here I go southwest. I feel
that I shall succeed in the end. I find that the factor is unable to
help me, and it is no doubt needless to ask you--"

"Quite so," I interrupted. "Osmund Maiden is still an unfamiliar name to
me."

"Captain Rudstone knows the Canadas thoroughly," said Griffith Hawke.
"Perhaps he has run across your man in the past."

My eyes were on the captain just then, and I fancied he gave a slight
start; certain it is that a sudden flush colored his bronzed face a
darker shade, and I remembered that this was not the first time he had
shown agitation at the mention of the man Christopher Burley was
seeking. But he was instantly himself again, and he calmly twisted his
long mustaches as he answered:

"Osmund Maiden! I fancy I have heard the name somewhere in my time. May
I ask, sir, what object you have in desiring to find this man?"

"That I may reveal to none save Osmund Maiden himself," Christopher
Burley replied. "But I beg of you to refresh your memory. It will be
greatly to your advantage if you can give me any information--"

"Denzil, I have been thinking of something," the factor interrupted
suddenly. "Forgive me, my boy, for alluding to a personal and delicate
matter; but I have always fancied that there was some mystery about your
father--that his name might have been assumed. I speak thus frankly
because