this business, which I now see was worse than you told me.
Many, too, are more angry with you for deserting B. than for
shooting the other fellow; and though B. was an arrant snob,
now that he is no more you wouldn't believe what shoals of
good qualities they have discovered he possessed, and he is
'poor Bob' in the mouth of twenty fellows who would not have
been seen in his company a month ago. There is, however,
worse than all this: a certain Reppingham, or Reppengham,
the father of B.'s wife, has either already instituted, or
is about to institute, proceedings against you criminally.
He uses ugly words, calls it a murder, and has demanded a
warrant for your extradition and arrest at once. There is a
story of some note you are said to have written to B., but
which arrived when he was insensible, and was read by the
people about him, who were shocked by its heartless levity.
What is the truth as to this? At all events, Rep has got a
vendetta fit on him, and raves like a Corsican for
vengeance. Your present place of concealment, safe enough
for duns, will offer no security against detectives. The
bland blackguards with black whiskers know the geography of
Europe as well as they know the blind alleys about
Houndsditch. You must decamp, therefore; get across the
Adriatic into Dalmatia, or into Greece. Don't delay,
whatever you do, for I see plainly, that in the present
state of public opinion, the fellow who captures you will
come back here with a fame like that of Gerard the lion-
killer. Be sure of one thing, if you were just as clean
handed in this business as I know you are not, there is no
time now for a vindication. You _must_ get out of the way,
and wait. The clubs, the press, the swells at the Horse
Guards, and the snobs at the War-office, are all against
you, and there's no squaring your book against such long
odds. I am well aware that no one gets either into or out of
a scrape more easily than yourself; but don't treat this as
a light one: don't fancy, above all, that I am giving you
the darkest side of it, for, with all our frankness and free
speech together, I couldn't tell you the language people
hold here about it There's not a man you ever bullied at
mess, or beat at billiards, that is not paying off his
score