ne
single moment to lose your charge from sight till on the steamer. From
Brindisi, the directions I have given cover all. Here is an envelope for
the Swiss woman which will make her your friend. Now go, Douglas! This
is the foundation of your fortune. If you succeed, you will have all
I leave behind in India. In case of any trouble in India, telegraph
instantly to this address, and I will join you at once. Memorize this
address, and destroy it then! Telegraph to me from Delhi, but only when
you start. And, when you sail from Madras, only the name of the steamer.
The trainmen will do the rest. They have their orders already. Is there
anything else?"

The young man pulled himself together. "It's like the Arabian Nights!"

"Go ahead, now, and show yourself a man!" cried Hugh Johnstone, almost
in anguish. "I do not wish to see you again until you have earned your
fortune! One last word: You are to make no explanations whatever!"

The young envoy grasped his kinsman's hands, crying: "You may count on
me in life and death! I'll do your bidding."

Old Johnstone drank a bottle of pale ale and composedly smoked a
cheroot, after he had watched the stalwart, rosy young Briton stride
away on his strange journey. A robust, frank-faced, fine young fellow
of twenty-six, with the fair brow and clear blue eyes of the "north
countree," was manly Douglas Fraser.

Toiling resolutely to rise, step by step, in the service of the
Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Company, he had never dreamed of the
sudden favor of his rich kinsman, and yet, loyal as the good Sir James
Douglas, he silently took up his quest.

"I can't understand the old gentleman." he mused as he hurried a half
an hour later into the station, though prudently selected by-streets.
"There may be some old official entanglement hanging over him yet. Some
reason why he would quit India quietly, or perhaps some one who owes him
a grudge. At any rate I'll do my duty to him like a man--to him and to
the others--like a gentleman."

Hugh Johnstone measuredly betook his way to Douglas Fraser's lodgings.

Before the old man was settled on Douglas's cozy wicker lounge, the
pilot engine was tearing away with the young voyager, who had simply
stepped out of his own life to make a sudden fortune.

"Now, damn you, Alixe Delavigne," hoarsely muttered the old man, when
alone, "I will see you to-morrow! You shall rule me until I get these
two coffers out of the bank, and until our hom