fe, and he
is a man with very strange ideas."

Nesbitt finished his drink, and rose up.

"Well," he said, "he's not a man I should care to be associated with.
Not but what I daresay he was right upstairs. He's strong, too, and he
must have a nerve. But he's a brute for all that!"

Nesbitt went his way, and Aynesworth returned upstairs. Wingrave was
alone.

"Have we finished this miserable business?" Aynesworth asked.

"For the present," Wingrave answered. "Mr. Malcolmson will supply
you with a copy of the accounts. See that Hardwell is credited with a
quarter share of the profits. Our dealings are over for the present.
Be prepared to start on Saturday for the West. We are going to look for
those bears."

"But the mine?" Aynesworth exclaimed. "It belongs to you now. Aren't you
going out to examine it?"

Wingrave shook his head.

"No," he said, "I know nothing about mines. My visit could not teach me
anything one way or the other. I have sent a commission of experts. I am
tired of cities and money-making. I want a change."

Aynesworth looked at him suddenly. The weariness was there indeed--was
it his fancy, or was it something more than weariness which shone out of
the dark, tired eyes?

BOOK II

"MR. WINGRAVE FROM AMERICA"

"Four years ago tonight," Aynesworth said, looking round the club
smoking room thoughtfully, "we bade you farewell in this same room!"

Lovell, wan and hollow-eyed, his arm in a sling, his once burly frame
gaunt and attenuated with disease, nodded.

"And I told you the story," he remarked, "of--the man who had been my
friend."

"Don't let us talk of Wingrave tonight!" Aynesworth exclaimed with
sudden emphasis.

"Why not?" Lovell knocked the ashes from his pipe, and commenced
leisurely to refill it. "Why not, indeed? I mean to go and see him as
soon as I can get about a little better."

"If your description of him," Aynesworth said, "was a faithful one, you
will find him changed."

Lovell laughed a little bitterly.

"The years leave their mark," he said, "upon us all--upon all of us,
that is, who step out into the open where the winds of life are blowing.
Look at me! I weighed eighteen stone when I left England. I had the
muscles of a prize fighter and nerves of steel. Today I turn the scale
at ten stone and am afraid to be alone in the dark."

"You will be yourself again in no time," Aynesworth declared cheerfully.

"I shall be better than I am now, I hope," Lo