was indeed cruel news to strike him at the very
commencement of his wedded happiness; but his wife slipped her soft arms
round his neck, and the lawyer considerately withdrew, Grenville
whispering to him to wait his return in the smoke-room.

In few words Leigh told his cousin to find out all the solicitor had to
communicate, and to do what he thought best; and then Grenville left him
alone with his sorrow and his new-made wife.

The lawyer had little to tell. Lord Drelincourt and his son had been
killed in a railway accident in Ireland, and advertisements had been
inserted in all the South African papers for the missing heir to the
title, as his wanderings had been traced as far as Natal.

Grenville was favourably impressed with the little man, who hurried away
to cable his lordship's London solicitors, promising to return that
evening, which he did, and made himself so useful that before the new
Lord Drelincourt's departure for England he was made happy with a very
handsome cheque.

Grenville next took passages by the Union Company's steamer _Tartar_,
and saw his cousin and his bride safely off two days after, the former
in possession of a bill of lading for gold dust to the value of _a
quarter of a million sterling_.

Words cannot describe poor Leigh's distress when he found that his
cousin had no intention of accompanying them to the Old Country.

"Dick, you're not going back to waste your life over her grave and
amongst savages? Don't do it, old man," pleaded his cousin.

"Not I, Alf--I'm not made of that kind of stuff. If I do anything with
reference to the matter, it will be in the direction of visiting Salt
Lake City and exterminating the whole cursed Mormon breed. I cannot yet
coop myself up in trim civilised England--I long for the keen breath of
the mountain air and for the wide sweep of veldt as it spreads its
expanse before me in all the weird mystery of the moonlight. No, dear
old chap; you have someone else to take care of you now; but when you
want Dick Grenville, you know you've only to ask for him. Adieu, Alf;
good-bye, Sister Dora. God bless you both! Vale, me ama!"

The End.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Into the Unknown, by Lawrence Fletcher

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