u and I,
and let us get to the bottom of it together."

"We shall soon do that," said the Colonel, "for he is coming here
to-morrow again."

"All the better."

"With the lady."

"What lady?"

"The lady that calls herself Mrs. Walter Clifford."

"Indeed!" said Grace, quite taken aback. "They must be very bold."

"Oh, for that matter," said the Colonel, "I insisted upon it; the man
seemed to know nothing but from mere hearsay. He knew nothing about
William Hope, the witness, so I told him he must bring the woman; and, to
be just to the man, he seemed to think so too, and that she ought to do
her own business."

"She will not come," said Grace, rather contemptuously. "He was obliged
to say she would, just to put a face upon it. To-morrow he'll bring an
excuse instead of her. Then have your detectives about, for he is a
villain; and, dear sir, please receive him in the drawing-room; then I
will find some way to get a sight of him myself."

"It shall be done," said the Colonel. "I begin to think with you. At all
events, if the lady does not come, I shall hope it is all an imposture or
a mistake."

With this understanding they parted, and waited in anxiety for the
morrow, but now their anxiety was checkered with hope.

* * * * *

To-morrow bade fair to be a busy day. Colonel Clifford, little dreaming
the condition to which his son and his guest would be reduced, had
invited Jem Davies and the rescuing parties to feast in tents on his own
lawn and drink his home-brewed beer, and they were to bring with them
such of the rescued miners as might be in a condition to feast and drink
copiously. When he found that neither Hope nor his son could join these
festivities, he was very sorry he had named so early a day; but he was so
punctilious and precise that he could not make up his mind to change one
day for another. So a great confectioner at Derby who sent out feasts was
charged with the affair, and the Colonel's own kitchen was at his service
too. That was not all. Bartley was coming to do business. This had been
preceded by a letter which Colonel Clifford, it may be remembered, had
offered to show Grace Clifford. The letter was thus worded:

"COLONEL CLIFFORD,--A penitent man begs humbly to approach you, and offer
what compensation is in his power. I desire to pay immediately to Walter
Clifford the sum of L20,000 I have so long robbed him of, with five per
cent, interest for the use