Then go."

"But there ain't nowhere to go, and--Oh, I say, Mayne Gordon, what is a
fellow to do?"

"Do what I do," I said, quickly.

"What's that?"

"Trust to Mr Gunson the same as we have done before."

"Thank you, Mayne Gordon," said Gunson, laying his hand on my shoulder;
"but I hardly like exposing you to risk."

"The danger has not come yet," I said, smiling, though I confess to
feeling uncomfortable. "Perhaps it never will."

"At any rate we must be prepared," said Gunson. "Only to think of it!
What a little thing influences our careers! I little fancied when I
protected that poor little fellow on board the steamer, that in so doing
I was jeopardising my prospects just when I was about to make the
success of my life."

"It is unfortunate," I said.

"Unfortunate, boy?--it is maddening. But for this I should once more
have been a rich man."

I looked at him curiously, and he saw it.

"Yes," he said, laughingly, "once more a rich man."

"Is one any the happier for being rich?" I said.

"Not a bit, my lad. I was rich once, and was a miserable idiot. Mayne,
I left college to find myself suddenly in possession of a good fortune,"
he continued, pausing excitedly now, and speaking quicker, for Esau had
strolled off to a little distance with Quong. "Instead of making good
use of it, I listened to a contemptible crew who gathered about me, and
wasted my money rapidly in various kinds of gambling, so that at the end
of a year I was not only penniless, but face to face with half a dozen
heavy debts of honour which I knew I must pay or be disgraced. Bah! why
am I telling you all this?"

"No, no; don't stop," I said eagerly; "tell me all."

"Well," he said, "I will; for I like you, Mayne, and have from the day
we first met on board the _Albatross_. It may be a warning to you. No:
I will not insult you by thinking you could ever grow up as I did. For
to make up for my losings, I wildly plunged more deeply into the
wretched morass, and then in my desperation went to my sister and mother
for help."

"And they helped you?" I said, for he paused.

"Of course, for they loved me in spite of my follies. It was for the
last time, I told them, and they signed away every shilling of their
fortunes, Mayne, to enable me to pay my debts. And then--"

"And then?" I said, for he had paused again.

"And then I had the world before me, Mayne," he said, sadly. "I was
free, but I had set myself the task of