come to meet. Entering the ruins proper by the Marine Gate, I made
my way direct to the _rendezvous_ named upon the card, and, surely,
never in the history of that ancient place had a man passed along its
streets on a stranger mission. I need not have hurried, however, for on
reaching the Forum, whence a full view of the Temple can be obtained, I
found that I had the place to myself. Having satisfied myself on this
point, I sat down on a block of stone and collected my thoughts in
preparation for the coming interview. Times out of number I consulted my
watch; and when the hands pointed to four o'clock I felt as if the
quarter of an hour I had spent there had in reality been an hour. It was
a breathless afternoon; beyond the city the blue hills seemed to float
and quiver in mid-air. A lark was trilling in the sky above me, and so
still was it that the rumbling of a wagon on the white road half a mile
or so away could be distinctly heard.

"My dear Mr. Forrester, allow me to wish you a very good afternoon; I
need scarcely say how delighted I am to meet you!" said a voice behind
me; and, turning, I found myself face to face with Pharos.

CHAPTER VI.

Anxious as I had been to see him, and eagerly as I had sought his
presence, now that Pharos stood before me I was as frightened of him as
I had been on the night I had first set eyes on him at the foot of
Cleopatra's Needle. I stood looking at his queer, ungainly figure for
some seconds, trying to make up my mind how I should enter upon what I
had to say to him. That he was aware of my embarrassment I could see,
and from the way his lips curled I guessed that he was deriving
considerable satisfaction from it. His face was as crafty and his eyes
as wicked as ever I had seen them; but I noticed that on this occasion
he leaned more heavily upon his stick than usual.

"I presume it is to my kind friend Sir George Legrath that I am indebted
for the pleasure of this interview," he said, after the short pause that
followed his introductory speech; "for I need not flatter myself you
will believe me when I say that I was fully aware, even before I met you
in Lady Medenham's house the other day, that we should be talking
together in this Temple within a week."

The palpable absurdity of this speech gave me just the opportunity for
which I was waiting.

"Monsieur Pharos," I said, with as much sternness as I could manage to
throw into my voice, "successful as you have hithe