“Glad to hear it, but listen to me, my dear; I want you to know the truth. We rode straight back to the—to where we lived—and, of course, found the old man gone away from the place. We tracked him right enough, but came up when it was all over. Daly and Moran were the chief actors in that tragedy.”

“Oh, we said it was Moran’s work from the first, didn’t we, Bell? It’s just the line he’s cut out for. I always think he ought to have a bowl and dagger. He looks like the villain on the stage.”

“On and off the stage he can support the principal part in that line most naturally,” says Starlight; “but I prophesy he will be cut off in the midst of his glorious career. He’s beastly cunning, but he’ll be trapped yet.”

“It’s a pity Jim can’t stay a few days with us,” says Maddie; “I believe we’d find a way of passing him on to Victoria. I’ve known more than one or two, or half-a-dozen either, that has been put through the same way.”

“For God’s sake, Mad, lay me on!” says poor Jim, “and I’ll go on my knees to you.”

“Oh! I daresay,” says Maddie, looking saucy, “but I like a man to be fond of some woman in a proper way, even if it isn’t me; so I’ll do what I can to help you to your wife and pickaninny.”

“We must get you into the police force, Maddie,” says Starlight, “or make you a sort of inspector, unattached, if you’re so clever at managing these little affairs. But what’s the idea?”

“Well,” says she, settling herself in a chair, spreading out her dress, and looking very knowing, “there’s an old gentleman being driven all the way overland in a sort of light Yankee trap, and the young fellow that’s driving has to find horses and feed ‘em. and get so much for the trip.”

“Who is it?” says I.

“Oh! you know him,” says Maddie, looking down, “he’s a great friend of mine, a steady-going, good-conducted chap, and he’s a little—you understand—well, shook on me. I could persuade him a bit, that is-.”

“I don’t doubt that at all,” says I.

“Oh! you know him a little. He says he saw you at the Turon; he was working with some Americans. His name’s Joe Moreton.”

“I remember him well enough; he used to wear a moustache and a chin beard, and talk Yankee. Only for that he was a good deal like Jim; we always said so.”

“Do you see anything now, Dick, you that’s so sharp?” says Maddie.