"Can I send a message to London, and leave a deposit here for the reply,
that it may not cost my London friend anything?"

"Certainly, sir."

Stranleigh wrote--

"Duke of Rattleborough, Camperdown Club, London.

"A man calling himself Wentworth Parkes presented a letter
of introduction from you to me. Please cable whether or not
he is reliable."

Two days later, Stranleigh received a reply--

"Letter a forgery. Parkes was my valet for three years, then
bolted, leaving a lot of little things behind him, but not
if they were portable and valuable. Believe he is now
abroad, though the London police are yearning for him.
RATTLEBOROUGH."

Now began the persistent pursuit of Stranleigh, which culminated in his
sending Ponderby down to the steamship office to buy tickets for
England. The young man said nothing to anyone of the cablegram he had
received, nor did he inform the police of London the whereabouts of
their quarry. He rather pitied the poor wretch, as he called him, but he
had no use for a thief and a liar, so he refused to hold further
communication with him, or to make any explanation. Parkes, finding he
could not gain admission to Stranleigh, took to sending letters by
special messenger, first adopting an aggrieved tone, a reproachful
suggestion of injured innocence running through his correspondence
like a minor note in a piece of music; then he became the victim of
an unscrupulous millionaire, asserting that Stranleigh had promised
to finance the proposed company, and breathing threats of legal
proceedings. Indeed, as the recipient read these later communications,
he realised they were evidently written with a view to publicity in law
courts, for there emanated from them sentiments of great patriotism. The
United States, Stranleigh learned, would not put up with his villainy,
as would have been the case with legal proceedings in decadent England,
where judges were under the thumb of a debased aristocracy.

Stranleigh had no ambition to appear in the courts of either country, so
he removed from one hotel to another, but apparently he was watched, for
Parkes ran him down wherever he betook himself. Thus we come to the
moment when the sedate but overjoyed Ponderby returned with the
steamship tickets, which Stranleigh thrust into his pocket.

"Shall I pack up now, my lord?"

"I wish you would. The valet of the hotel will assist you. Prepare three
boxes; one f