Part 36 (1/2)

Cliff do if she knew it?

As for the man with the white cap, who had walked sloay about his business that endared and stornashed his teeth, and swore under his breath most awfully and continuously Never had he known such cursed luck One thousand dollars had been within two feet of his hand! He knew that the lady had that sum in her pocket-book He was sure she spoke truthfully Her very denunciation of him was a proof that she had not meant to deceive hiiven him the money In a few seconds ive him the price she promised But in those few seconds that Gehenna-born baboon had rushed in and spoiled everything He was not enraged against the lady, but he was enraged against himself because he had not snatched the wallet before he ran, and he was infuriated to a degree which reseht of Cheditafa and what he had done The ht, the ro with her to spy on hiht a gendarme, not that ape

No, the beastly blackamoor had done the business on his own account He had sneaked after the lady, and when he saw the gendarood chance to pay off old scores

”Pay off!” growled Banker, in a tone whicha band-box, jump so violently that she dropped the box ”Pay off! I'll pay him!” And for a quarter of a mile he vowed that the present purpose of his life was the annihilation, the bloody annihilation, of that vile dog, whom he had trampled into the dirt of the Pacific coast, and who now, decked in fine clothes, had arisen in Paris to balk him of his fortune

It cut Banker very deeply when he thought how neat and simple had been the plan which had almost succeeded He had had a notion, when he went away to prepare the letter for the captain's wife, that he would write in it a brief , but would ain But he had abandoned this

He ht counterfeit an address, but it iser not to try his hand upon a letter The ht about Ra him, even in Paris So he considered that if he ot five thousand francs, he would retire, joyful and satisfied But now! Well, he had a purpose: the annihilation of Cheditafa was at present his chief object in life

Banker seldom stayed in one place , that night, he threay his slouch-hat, which he had raain He had his hair cut short and his face neatly shaved, and when he went to his rooreatly altered the cast of his countenance He was not the penniless man he had represented hiether, for he was a billiard sharper and gambler of much ability, and when he appeared in the street, the next , he was neatly dressed in a suit of second-hand clothes which were as quiet and respectable as any tourist of limited means could have desired With Baedeker's ”Paris” in his hand, and with a long knife and a slung-shot concealed in his clothes, he went forth to behold the wonders of the great city

He did not seeht, for fro, he was an energetic and interested wayfarer, confining his observations, however, to certain quarters of the city which best suited his investigations One night he gawkily strolled into the Black Cat, and one day he boldly entered the Hotel Grenade andthe price of accommodations, which, however, he declared were far above his means That day he saw Mok in the courtyard, and once, in passing, he saw Edna coe with an elderly lady, and they drove aith Cheditafa on the box

Under his dark sack-coat Banker wore a coarse blouse, and in the pocket of this undergarment he had a white cap He was a wonderful man to move quietly out of people's way, and there were places in every neighborhood where, even in the daytime, he could cast off the dark coat and the derby hat without attracting attention

It was satisfactory to think, as he briskly passed on, as one who has much to see in a little time, that the incident in the Tuileries Gardens had not yet caused the captain's wife to change her quarters

CHAPTER XLVI

A PROBLEM

It was a little more than a week after Edna's adventure in the Gardens, and about ten o'clock in thewhich proved that Mrs Cliff was entirely right when she talked about the feeling in her bones Edna received a letter from Captain Horn, which was dated at Marseilles

As she stood with the letter in her hand, every nerve tingling, every vein throbbing, and every id as if it had been cast in metal, she could scarcely comprehend that it had really co and trusting, here was news from Captain Horn--news by his own hand, now, here, this ained possession of herself, and, still standing, she tore open the letter It was a long one of several sheets, and she read it twice The first tie after page, running her eye fronature, but her quick glance found not what she looked for Then the hand holding the letter dropped by her side

After all this waiting and hoping and trusting, to receive such a letter! It enerous friend, but that was all It was like the other letters he had written

Why should they not have been written to Mrs Cliff?

Now she sat down to read it over again She first looked at the envelope

Yes, it was really directed to ”Mrs Philip Horn” That was soht by a uet & Co, and had been delivered to Mrs Cliff That lady had told the er to take the letter to Edna's salon, and she was now lying in her own chaue Of course, she would not intrude upon Edna at such a moment as this She would wait until she was called Whether her shi+vers were those of ecstasy, apprehension, or that nervous tre frorave, she did not know, but she surely felt as if there were a ghost in the air

The second reading of the letter was careful and exact The captain had written a long account of what had happened after he had left Valparaiso

His former letter, he wrote, had told her what had happened before that ti asone It told wonderful things--things which ought to have interested any one But to Edna it was as dry as a meal of stale crusts

It supported her in her fidelity and allegiance as such a meal would have supported a half-famished man, but that was all Her soul could not live on such nutriun the letter ”My dear Wife,” as he had done before It was not necessary now that his letters should be used as proof that she was his ! He had plunged instantly into the subject-ned it after theto her!

There was so much to do which must be done iraphed to his bankers, and one of the firreat difficulties yet before him, in which he needed the aid of financial counsellors and those who had influence with the authorities His vessel, the _Arato_, had no papers, and he believed no cargo of such value had ever entered a port of France as that contained in the little green-hulled schooner which he had sailed into the harbor of Marseilles This cargo must be landed openly It must be shi+pped to various financial centres, and as to be done required so e, and discretion that without the aid of the house of Wraxton, Fuguet & Co, he believed his difficulties would have been greater than when he stood behind the wall of gold on the shore of the Patagonian island

He did not even ask her to coht be necessary for hio to Berlin, and whether or not he would travel to London from the German capital, he could not say, and for this reason he could not invite any of them to come down to him

”Any of us!” exclaimed Edna