gh the thing sounds so preposterous, a child might be
expected to scoff at it. A man to get a magic belt, to put it on, and
then to melt away? Why, the 'Seven-league Boots' couldn't be a greater
tax on one's credulity. Sit down and tell me all about it."

"The dickens of it is there doesn't seem to be much to tell," said
Narkom, accepting the invitation. "Young Carboys, who appears to have
been a decent sort of chap, had neither money, position, nor enemies, so
that's an end to any idea of somebody having a reason for wishing to get
rid of him; and, as he was devotedly attached to Miss Morrison, and was
counting the very hours to the time of their wedding, and, in addition,
had no debts, no entanglements of any sort, and no possible reason for
wishing to disappear, there isn't the slightest ground for suspecting
that he did so voluntarily."

"Suppose you tell me the story from the beginning, and leave me to draw
my own conclusions regarding that," said Cleek. "Who and what was the
man? Was he living in the same house with his fiancee, then? You say the
disappearance occurred there, at night, and that he went into a bedroom.
Was the place his home, as well as Captain Morrison's, then?"

"On the contrary. His home was a matter of three or four miles distant.
He was merely stopping at the Morrison's on that particular night; I'll
tell you presently why and how he came to do that. For the present,
let's take things in their proper order. Once upon a time this George
Carboys occupied a fair position in the world, and his parents--long
since dead--were well to do. The son, being an only child, was well
looked after--sent to Eton and then to Brasenose, and all that sort of
thing--and the future looked very bright for him. Before he was
twenty-one, however, his father lost everything through unlucky
speculations, and that forced the son to make his own living. At the
'Varsity he had fallen in with a rich young Belgian--fellow named
Maurice Van Nant--who had a taste for sculpture and the fine arts
generally, and they had become the warmest and closest of friends."

"Maurice Van Nant? That's the sculptor fellow you said in the beginning
had gone through his money, isn't it?"

"Yes. Well, when young Carboys was thrown on the world, so to speak,
this Van Nant came to the rescue, made a place for him as private
secretary and companion, and for three or four years they knocked round
the world together, going to Egypt, Persia, Ind