ld you already, my dear sir," he said, modestly, "that I never
do things by halves. Pardon me for reminding you that we have no
time for exchanging mutual civilities. Are you quite sure about your
instructions? I dare not write them down for fear of accidents. Try the
system of artificial memory; count your instructions off after me, on
your thumb and your four fingers. To-day you tell Mrs. Lecount I have
tried to take you in with my relative's works of Art. To-morrow you cut
me on the Parade. The day after you refuse to go out, you get tired of
Aldborough, and you allow Mrs. Lecount to make her suggestion. The next
day you accept the suggestion. And the next day to that you go to St.
Crux. Once more, my dear sir! Thumb--works of Art. Forefinger--cut me
on the Parade. Middle finger--tired of Aldborough. Third finger--take
Lecount's advice. Little finger--off to St. Crux. Nothing can be
clearer--nothing can be easier to do. Is there anything you don't
understand? Anything that I can explain over again before you go?"

"Only one thing," said Noel Vanstone. "Is it settled that I am not to
come here again before I go to St. Crux?"

"Most decidedly!" answered the captain. "The whole success of the
enterprise depends on your keeping away. Mrs. Lecount will try the
credibility of everything you say to her by one test--the test of your
communicating, or not, with this house. She will watch you night and
day! Don't call here, don't send messages, don't write letters; don't
even go out by yourself. Let her see you start for St. Crux on her
suggestion, with the absolute certainty in her own mind that you have
followed her advice without communicating it in any form whatever to me
or to my niece. Do that, and she _must_ believe you, on the best of all
evidence for our interests, and the worst for hers--the evidence of her
own senses."

With those last words of caution, he shook the little man warmly by the
hand and sent him home on the spot.

CHAPTER X.

ON returning to Sea View, Noel Vanstone executed the instructions which
prescribed his line of conduct for the first of the five days with
unimpeachable accuracy. A faint smile of contempt hovered about Mrs.
Lecount's lips while the story of Mr. Bygrave's attempt to pass off his
spurious pictures as originals was in progress, but she did not trouble
herself to utter a single word of remark when it had come to an end.
"Just what I said!" thought Noel Vanstone, cunningly wat