lowly off, "that you have
had a bad fall."

"Yes, Your Majesty," answered the bewildered, wounded man as he
disappeared in the dusk.

I stood watching the Duke as he went coolly back without a word to me
to his place; this, then, was the cool, resourceful scoundrel I had to
deal with!

* * * * *

Sitting by the big fire in the smoking-room at Bannington Hall that
night after dinner, I told St. Nivel the whole of the incident of the
shooting of the beater by the Duke of Rittersheim.

"Well, that's the limit," commented Jack, taking the cigar out of his
mouth; "he _must_ be a cool-headed scoundrel. I never heard of such
nerve!"

"It's a nice thing to have a brute like that on one's track, isn't it?"
I remarked dejectedly; "it makes life hardly worth living."

Jack sat and smoked placidly for some moments looking into the fire.
He was thinking.

Presently he turned to me.

"Look here, Bill," he remarked, "Ethel and I had a talk this evening
before dinner about matters generally and she has started what I call a
very good idea."

"What's that?" I asked.

"Of course, she knows all about your promise to the old lady; you told
her, you know."

"Certainly," I answered, "I told you both. I know you never keep
secrets from one another."

"Well, she knows," he proceeded, "therefore, that you have made up your
mind to go to Valoro with that packet the old lady gave you."

"Well?"

Jack brought his hand down with a smack on my knee.

"Let us come too, old chap," he cried--"both of us--Ethel and I."

The idea to me was both pleasant and astonishing. I had never thought
of it.

"But won't Ethel find it rather a fatiguing journey?" I suggested.

He was quite amused at the idea.

"I can assure you," he said, "that she can stand pretty nearly as much
as I can. She's a regular little amazon. That's what Ethel is."

"Very well, then," I replied, "nothing will suit me better than to have
yours and Ethel's charming society. As a matter of fact I am beginning
to look forward to the expedition keenly."

The next few days were given up to wild speculations on our coming
journey and its results.

"I hear the country is lovely," exclaimed Ethel, poring over a map; "at
any rate the voyage will be splendid!"

It was settled that we should start from Liverpool to Monte Video,
thence make our way by rail across country to our destination, Valoro,
a beautiful city in the mountains of Aq