have left, and peons
in revolt. A detachment of police proceeds by train to Taco to-night.
Join them there and await instructions.'

'I thought he would stick to the steamer,' said Ross at last.

'And probably,' said Dunbar, 'he is as safe there as anywhere he can
be. He can't work his boat without a crew, but if he is armed he will
be able to defend himself even if he is attacked. I don't know how
many boats there were at La Dorada, but I would lay my life that Purvis
took the precaution of sending them adrift or wrecking them before he
got away.'

'What is to be the next move?' said Peter.

'I suppose we shall have to ride down to Taco to-night,' said Dunbar.
'Yon man,' he finished, in his nonchalant voice, 'has given me a good
bit of trouble in his time.'

'It seems to me,' said Ross, 'that you can't touch any business
connected with Purvis without handling a pretty unsavoury thing.'

'Now, I 'll tell you an odd thing,' said Dunbar. 'I have had to make
some pretty close inquiries about Purvis since I have been on his
track, and you will probably not believe it if I tell you that by birth
he is a gentleman.'

'He behaves like one,' said Ross shortly.

'If I had time,' said Dunbar, 'I could tell you the story, but I see
the fresh horses coming round, and I and the commissario must get away
to Taco.' He was in the saddle as he spoke, and rode off with the
commissario.

'A boy,' said Hopwood, entering presently, 'rode over with this, this
moment, sir.' He handed a note to Peter on a little tray, and waited
in the detached manner of the well-trained servant while Peter opened
the letter.

The writing was almost unintelligible, being written in pencil on a
scrap of paper, and it had got crushed in the pocket of the man who
brought it.

'It is for Dunbar, I expect,' said Peter, looking doubtfully at the
name on the cover. He walked without haste to a table where a lamp
stood, and looked more closely at the address. 'No, it's all right,
it's for me,' he said.

At first it was the vulgar melodrama of the message which struck him
most forcibly with a sense of distaste and disgust, and then he flicked
the piece of paper impatiently and said, 'I don't believe a word of
it!' His face was white, however, as he turned to the servant and
said, 'Who brought this?'

'I will go and see, sir,' said Hopwood, and left the room.

Peter, with the scrap of paper in his hand, walked over to the
bridge-table where