for he was too anxious to be on his way to be able to eat, and he was
relieved when Mr. Buxton said it was time to start and sent the
servant for a cab.

On their way to Charing Cross they did not talk much: conjecture was a
pretty useless thing, and, in their present state of utter lack of
information, conjecture was the only thing possible.

The bustle of getting a ticket and finding a seat occupied most of the
ten minutes they had to spare before the train started, and, as the
swift express glided out, Mr. Buxton waved his hat to Jack leaning
through the window, and cried, "Good luck!"

Of Jack's swift scurry across the Channel and over the Continent it is
not necessary to enter into details. He made the journey with the
utmost speed, and chafed at every delay. At last the train ran into
the station of Brindisi, and Jack hung half out of the window, his
eyes searching the crowd for Risley, to whom he had telegraphed his
time of arrival.

"Hullo, Buck," sang out Jack, as a middle-sized, stiff-built man of
five and thirty ran up to his carriage door.

"Glad to see you, Jack," said Buck Risley, as they shook hands. "Very
glad to see you."

"Any news?" snapped Jack.

"Not a word," replied Buck gravely, "not a word. Is this your bag?"

"Yes," said Jack sombrely, for he was very disappointed. He had been
hoping to hear that something had been found out, or that his father
had returned.

Buck took Jack's gladstone, called a carriage, and gave the name of
the hotel. He did not speak till they were rattling along the streets
of Brindisi.

"Say, Jack, this beats the band," he said. "I can't make a guess
what's happened to the Professor."

Mr. Haydon and Buck Risley had first met in a "wild-cat" mining camp
in Dakota. _The Lone Wolf Clarion_ had introduced the English engineer
to the local community as Professor Haydon, and Mr. Haydon had been
the Professor ever since to his part-comrade, part-servant.

"Tell me all about it," said Jack, and Buck began his story. It was
soon finished, for there was very little to tell. They had been four
months in Burmah, and Mr. Haydon and Buck had gone up to Mandalay, and
then on to the Mogok country. At Mogok Buck had been seized with a
sharp touch of fever, and had been compelled to remain in that famous
mining town while Mr. Haydon went up country, accompanied only by a
few natives who had been with him in other journeys. He came back
after an absence of five weeks to Mogo