lved and succeeded in getting a glimpse in the manner we
know of the man James Wellgood. This time he recognized Fairbrother and,
satisfied from the circumstances of the moment that he would be
making no mistake in accusing him of having taken the Great Mogul, he
intercepted him in his flight, as you have already read, and demanded
the immediate return of his great diamond.

And Fairbrother? We shall have to go back a little to bring his history
up to this critical instant.

When he realized the trend of public opinion; when he saw a perfectly
innocent man committed to the Tombs for his crime, he was first
astonished and then amused at what he continued to regard as the triumph
of his star. But he did not start for El Moro, wise as he felt it would
be to do so. Something of the fascination usual with criminals kept
him near the scene of his crime,--that, and an anxiety to see how Sears
would conduct himself in the Southwest. That Sears had followed him to
New York, knew his crime, and was the strongest witness against him, was
as far from his thoughts as that he owed him the warning which had all
but balked him of his revenge. When therefore he read in the papers that
"Abner Fairbrother" had been found sick in his camp at Santa Fe, he felt
that nothing now stood in the way of his entering on the plans he had
framed for ultimate escape. On his departure from El Moro he had taken
the precaution of giving Sears the name of a certain small town on
the coast of Maine where his mail was to be sent in case of a great
emergency. He had chosen this town for two reasons. First, because he
knew all about it, having had a young man from there in his employ;
secondly, because of its neighborhood to the inlet where an old
launch of his had been docked for the winter. Always astute, always
precautionary, he had given orders to have this launch floated and
provisioned, so that now he had only to send word to the captain, to
have at his command the best possible means of escape.

Meanwhile, he must make good his position in C--. He did it in the way
we know. Satisfied that the only danger he need fear was the discovery
of the fraud practised in New Mexico, he had confidence enough in Sears,
even in his present disabled state, to take his time and make himself
solid with the people of C--while waiting for the ice to disappear from
the harbor. This accomplished and cruising made possible, he took a
flying trip to New York to secure such