whole attention to his other
uncle, whom he found considerably more interesting.

Colonel Atherton arrived in high spirits, like a schoolboy home for a
holiday. He struck up an alliance with Percy at once, and insisted on
taking him off to the apartments near Regent's Park which were to be his
and Raby's home for the next few months. As he was saying good-bye to
the Rimbolts, he caught sight for the first time of Mr Halgrove.

"Why, bless me, is that you, Halgrove?" he said. "Why, I've worn
mourning for you, my boy. This is a bit of sharp practice. Where did
you spring from?"

"Perhaps I'm a ghost, after all. So many people have told me lately I'm
dead, that I begin to believe it."

"Never fear. If you were a ghost we should be able to see through you--
that's more than anybody ever did with Halgrove, eh, Rimbolt?"

"Halgrove is coming home with us," said Mr Rimbolt, "so when you and
Raby come to-morrow we can talk over old times."

"Who would have thought of him turning up?" said the colonel to his
daughter as with Percy they drove off in their cab. "Why, I've not
heard of him since that affair of poor Jeffreys, and--"

"Jeffreys!" exclaimed Percy, with a suddenness that startled the gallant
officer; "did you say Jeffreys?"

"Yes, what about him? It was long before your time--a dozen or fourteen
years ago."

"Why, he couldn't have been more than eight then; what happened to him,
uncle, I say?"

The boy asked his question so eagerly and anxiously that it was evident
it was not a case of idle curiosity.

"You must be meaning the son; I'm talking about the father. Wait till
we get home, my boy, and you shall hear."

It required all Percy's patience to wait. The very mention of his
friend's name had excited him. It never occurred to him there were
hundreds of Jeffreys in the world, and that his uncle and he might be
interested in quite different persons. For him there was but one
Jeffreys in the universe, and he jumped at any straw of hope of finding
him.

The reader knows all Colonel Atherton was able to tell Percy and Raby--
for Raby was not an uninterested listener--of the story of Mr
Halgrove's partner. Percy in turn told what he knew of his Jeffreys;
and putting the two stories together, it seemed pretty clear it was a
history of parent and son.

Early next morning the colonel was at Clarges Street, seated in the
study with his two old college friends.

"Well," said he, "here's a case