g,
but I don't know how I'll get back when my wad runs out."

"Ah," said Barbara, "you mean your money will soon be gone? But you have
relations. Somebody would help."

"It's possible, but I would refuse," Lister rejoined. "You're not
adventuring much when another meets the bill. When my wallet's empty
I'll pull out and take any old job. The chances are I'll go to sea."

Barbara gave him an approving glance. She had known but one other
adventurer and he was a rogue. Lister was honest and she thought he
would go far. She liked his rashness, but if he found it hard to get on
board ship, she imagined she could help. All the same, she would not
talk about this yet.

"We really must go," she said, and they started up a gully where holes
and wedged stones helped them up like steps.

When they left the gully they saw a group of people on the neighboring
summit of the hill and for a moment Lister stopped.

"We have had a glorious climb," he said, "Now it's over, I hope you're
not going to stand me off again."

Barbara gave him a curious smile. "One can't stop on the mountains long.
We're going down to the every-day level and all looks different there."

The others began to wave to them, and crossing a belt of boggy grass
they joined the group. When they returned to Carrock, Cartwright was not
about and Mrs. Cartwright said he had got a telegram calling him to
Liverpool.

CHAPTER IV

A DISSATISFIED SHAREHOLDER

Cartwright had read the morning's letters and the _Journal of Commerce_,
and finding nothing important, turned his revolving chair to the fire.
He had been forced to wait for a train at a draughty station, and his
feet were cold. His office occupied an upper floor of an old-fashioned
building near the docks. Fog from the river rolled up the street and the
windows were grimed by soot, but Cartwright had not turned on the
electric light. The fire snapped cheerfully, and he lighted his pipe and
looked about.

The furniture was shabby, the carpet was getting threadbare, and some of
the glass in the partition that cut off the clerks' office was cracked.
Cartwright had thought about modernizing and decorating the rooms, but
to do the thing properly would cost five hundred pounds, and money was
scarce. Besides, a number of the merchants who shipped goods by his
boats were conservative and rather approved his keeping the parsimonious
rules of the old school.

The house was old and had been at one time rich an