e would trot off to his clothes-prop of a wife and ask her whether she
did not think it at once amusing and severe. That letter shall cost your
lordship fifty guineas, I don't allow people to write to me in that
style with impunity."

He lighted another cigar frowningly. "I wonder if I was ever so really
hard up as I am now?" he continued to himself. "I don't think I ever was
quite. I have been in Queer Street many a time, but I've always found a
friend round the corner, or have pulled myself through by the skin of
the teeth somehow. But this time I see no lift in the cloud. My
insolvency has become chronic; it is attacking the very citadel of life.
I have not a single uncle or aunt to fall back upon. The poor creatures
are all dead and buried, and their money all spent. Well!--Outlaw is an
ugly word, but it is one that I shall have to learn how to spell before
long. I shall have to leave my country for my country's good."

He puffed away fiercely for a little while, and then he resumed.

"It would not be a bad thing for a fellow like me to become a chief
among the Red Skins--if they would have me. With them my lack of pence
would be no bar to success. I can swim and shoot and ride: although I
cannot paint a picture, I daresay that I could paint myself; and I know
several fellows whose scalps I should have much pleasure in taking. As
for the so-called amenities of civilized life, what are they worth to
one who, like me, has no longer the means of enjoying them? After all,
it is a question whether freedom and the prairie would not be preferable
to Pall-Mall and a limited income of, say--twelve hundred a year--the
sort of income that is just enough to make one the slave of society, but
is not sufficient to pay for gilding its fetters. A station, by Jove!
and with it the possibility of getting a drop of cognac."

As soon as the train came to a stand, Captain Ducie vacated his seat and
went in search of the refreshment-room. On coming back five minutes
later, he was considerably disgusted to find that he was no longer to
have his compartment to himself. The seat opposite to that on which he
had been sitting was already occupied by a gentleman who was wrapped up
to the nose in rugs and furs.

"Any objection to smoking?" asked the Captain presently as the train
began to move. He was pricking the end of a fresh cigar as he asked the
question. The words might be civil, but the tone was offensive; it
seemed to convey--"I don