rader that dropped their messenger in a hot spring, and
they began to peel Ned before our eyes? How he said as they drew the first
chip from his shoulder, 'Tell the company, boys, that it's according to
the motto on their flag, Pro Pelle Cutem--Skin For Skin?' How the woman
backed down, and he got off with a strip of his pelt gone? How the
medicine man took little bits of us and the red niggers, too, and put them
on the raw place and fixed him up again? Well, that's the way to do it,
and if you come up smiling every time you get your pound of flesh one way
or another. Play the game with a clear head and a little insolence,
Gladney, and you won't find the world so bad at its worst.

"So much for so much. Now for the commission you gave me. I'd rather it
had been anything else, for I think I'm the last man in the world for duty
where women are concerned. That reads queer, but you know what I mean. I
mean that women puzzle me, and I'm apt to take them too literally. If I
found your wife, and she wasn't as straightforward as you are, Jack
Gladney, I'd as like as not get things in a tangle. You know I thought it
would be better to let things sleep--resurrections are uncomfortable
things mostly. However, here I am to do what's possible. What have I done?
Nothing. I haven't found her yet. You didn't want me to advertise, and I
haven't. She hasn't been acting for a long time, and no one seems to know
exactly where she is. She was traveling abroad with some people called
Branscombes, and I'm going to send a letter through their agent. We shall
see.

"Lastly, for business. I've floated the Aurora company with a capital of
$1,000,000, and that ought to carry the thing for all we want to do. So be
joyful. But you shall have full particulars next mail. I'm just off to
Herridon for the waters. Can you think it, Gladney--Mark Telford, late of
the H.B.C, coming down to that? But it's a fact. Luncheons and dinners in
London, E.C., fiery work, and so it's stand by the halyards for bad
weather! Once more, keep your nose up to the wind, and believe that I am
always," etc.

He read it through, dwelling here and there as if to reconsider, and, when
it was finished, put it back into his pocket, tore up the envelope and let
it fall to the ground. Presently he said: "I'll cable the money over and
send the letter on next mail. Strange that I didn't think of cabling
yesterday. However, it's all the same."

So saying, he came down the moor into