comes any
of his nonsense; and mind, Mr. Lawyer, whatever you do, don't you give
him too much to drink."

The lawyer ran to the door, and pushed Jack out, for he rightly enough
suspected that the quietness of the admiral was only that calm which
precedes a storm of more than usual amount and magnitude, so he was
anxious to part them at once.

He then set about appeasing, as well as he could, the admiral's anger,
by attributing the perseverance of Jack, in following him wherever he
went, to his great affection for him, which, combined with his
ignorance, might make him often troublesome when he had really no
intention of being so.

This was certainly the best way of appeasing the old man; and, indeed,
the only way in which it could be done successfully, and the proof that
it was so, consisted in the fact, that the admiral did consent, at the
suggestion of the attorney, to forgive Jack once more for the offence he
had committed.

CHAPTER XCVI.

THE BARON TAKES ANDERBURY HOUSE, AND DECIDES UPON GIVING A GRAND
ENTERTAINMENT.

[Illustration]

It was not considered anything extraordinary that, although the Baron
Stolmuyer of Saltzburgh went out with the mysterious stranger who had
arrived at the Anderbury Arms to see him, he should return without him
for certainly he was not bound to bring him back, by any means whatever.

Moreover, he entered the inn so quietly, and with such an appearance of
perfect composure, that no one could have suspected for a moment that he
had been guilty really of the terrific crime which had been laid to his
charge--a crime which few men could have committed in so entirely
unmoved and passionless a manner as he had done it.

But he seemed to consider the taking of a human life as a thing not of
the remotest consequence, and not to be considered at all as a matter
which was to put any one out of the way, but as a thing to be done when
necessity required, with all the ease in the world, without arousing or
awaking any of those feelings of remorse which one would suppose ought
to find a place in the heart of a man who had been guilty of such
monstrous behaviour.

He walked up to his own apartment again, and retired to rest with the
same feeling, apparently, of calmness, and the same ability to taste of
the sweets of repose as had before characterized him.

The stranger's horse, which was a valuable and beautiful animal,
remained in the stable of the inn, and as, of course, that