professors at Heidelberg. When they
gave me my diploma, they wrote my father that I ought to have a year of
travel to improve my health before entering upon the life work to which
I am devoted.

"Of course my desire was granted, and I began the search. I have been six
months at it without success; it is like pursuing an _ignis fatuus_. A
clew would take me to Russia, whence I would fly to Persia, then to
Turkey, and next to London. In Paris I felt sure of success, but the
lady I was tracking turned out to be a grandmother, and there was a
lively scene in her house when I sprung my game.

"Talk of 'Japhet in search of his father!' why, he wasn't in it at all
compared with me. At last came another clew; among the letters forwarded
in a bunch from home was a line in the same precious hand. See, here it
is."

He takes out from a note-book a slip of paper; the writing is elegant
and feminine.

She reads:

"January 12th. Just twenty years to-day. Oh! Heaven! teach me to kiss
the rod."

No signature, only a mark like a tear-drop.

"Now you realize my position; you can, in a measure, understand the
peculiar mingling of love, reverence, and pity with which I think of
this mother, and how the thought of her enters into every act of mine."

"Yes, yes, I do indeed," sympathetically.

"I have sworn to find her--to let her know there is one who loves the
poor exile. Let my father rage if he will, my heart burns to meet her.
I will proceed. This letter was postmarked Malta, here at Valetta."

"But you did not mention--"

"I knew the steamer would stop a few hours at least, and thought that
might be enough in which to learn the truth. Strange things have
happened since we landed. I have learned several facts which astound me.

"You saw a man come in and draw me aside? That man controls the
destinies of these people of Valetta, even as a chief of police would in
our cities. When first I landed I sought the presence of Luther Keene--"

"There--your mention of his name revives my recollection like a flash.
Now I know just when and where I met that man," she says.

"He promised to assist me, for a consideration, of course, and was
especially delighted at the chance to prove that even out here in Malta
there might be a second Vidocq.

"In his first report he told me the party I sought had been in Valetta
only recently, but he believed she was now gone.

"The man told me just now where Blanche Austin staid during her
re