cannot believe it,' he said.

The other was silent for some moments, and Jim watched him with troubled
eyes. None of the cruelty and the viciousness to which Ryder had given
utterance found expression in his features, which were marked with
sensitive lines and some refinement. Done thought of Brummy the Nut, and
it seemed to him little short of miraculous that this man had been able
to come through similar experiences and yet show no evidence of it in his
face. Ryder arose and moved away a few paces.

'If you go from here to another field,' he said, 'leave word for me at
one of the stores.'

'Are you going?'

'I may not leave Jim Crow for a few days.'

'You have something in hand?'

'Meaning some robbery? No; it is possible Solo has made a dramatic
disappearance from contemporaneous history.'

You'll drop the game? Good! Good!'

'It all depends. I have the gold I need, but the sporting instinct may be
too strong for me. Just now there is other work in view. Be assured, my
intentions are not honourable, however. We shall meet again. My
proposition may appeal to you later. You will not forget it.'

'Put it out of your head,' said Jim appealingly. 'Leave the country, take
the gold if you must, live luxuriously if you care to, but dig out of
your heart this devilish malice against people who have done you no
conscious wrong. Do this for your own sake; the course you have decided
upon is one of desolation and despair.'

'Least of all did I expect to find my brother a pulpiteer and a moralist
with all the popular faith in the domestic virtues, and the quaint
conviction that misery dogs the sinner,' said Ryder dryly.

'I have used no cant,' answered Jim, 'and I said nothing of sin or
virtue. I don't ask you to trust God, but to trust man. Be at peace with
your kind!'

'And this is the man they called the Hermit on board the Francis Cadman!'

'Yes; and I was wretched aboard simply because I met the free and hearty
men around me in a spirit of sullenness and suspicion. But my sick
misanthropy was not proof against the heart-quickening sunshine and the
grand enthusiasm of those fine sane men.'

'Evidently your philosophy sprang from a disordered liver. The
sea-voyage, in stimulating that, cured you of your cherished beliefs.
Another trip would probably make a devout Wesleyan of you,' said Ryder
banteringly. 'Now, my liver is a perfect instrument, and you couldn't
alter a single opinion of mine with a long course