ng match. The chickens were
buried in the ground all but their heads, and the people were shooting at
ten paces when these men passed. They asked about it, and asked if they
might shoot with their own pistols; and when permission was given, they
drew their weapons and killed six chickens each in a minute, and were
laughing all the time as though it were nothing. They are devils, shure
enough."

"Do you think Browning knew all about this from the first?" asked Hamlin.

"Not at all," said Emanuel. "No one in London knew where the Americans
had gone, except his wife. Browning thought he had gone back to America.
His wife knew. She got a dispatch from Australia, and letters from Port
Natal ze same day, saying he was going to San Francisco to order
machinery, and would return this way and be with her in four months,
and then she left at once and beat him a week into San Francisco.

"And I am ruined. My little stock is all gone. A mine worth L2,000,000 I
sold for L2,000." And he went out.

"What can we do?" asked Jenvie. "I expect a notice every moment to call
at the broker's and settle."

"Can we not assign our property?" asked Hamlin.

"We could," said Jenvie, "but to-morrow we should all be looking through
the bars of a prison."

"And even Grace was in the conspiracy to rob us," said Hamlin, in an
injured tone.

"She is a brave, true woman, I think," said Jenvie, "and as it looks to
me, she is the only one to whom we can now appeal."

"May be so," said Hamlin. "Her husband worships her, I am told."

"Suppose we go to your house and persuade your wife to go and bring her
home where we can see her," said Jenvie.

This was agreed to, and with heavy hearts the three men entered a
carriage and were driven to the Hamlin house.

As they went up the steps, Grace Sedgwick herself opened the door. She
had been to see her mother, and was just going out.

"Come back, Grace," said her step-father; "we wish to see you
particularly."

She returned with them, and her step-father told her how they were
involved--in what danger they were, not only of absolute ruin, but of
a criminal prosecution, and begged her to see her husband and intercede
with him.

"My husband needs no entreaties to do what is right," said Grace.
"Suppose the case were reversed, what would you grant my husband?"

They all hung their heads. Grace looked at them and continued: "You
robbed dear, confiding Jack of his fortune, which he had honestly
acq