impoverished for his
political opinions.'

I smiled and held my tongue. Silence costs nothing. But Mr. Higginson's
political opinions, I felt sure, were of that simple communistic sort
which the law in its blunt way calls fraudulent. They consisted in a
belief that all was his which he could lay his hands on.

'Higginson's a splendid fellah for his place, yah know, Miss Cayley,'
Lord Southminster said to me one evening as we were approaching Aden.
'What I like about him is, he's so doosid intelligent.'

'Extremely so,' I answered. Then the devil entered into me again. 'He
had the doosid intelligence even to take in Lady Georgina.'

'Yaas; that's just it, don't you know. Georgey told me that story.
Screamingly funny, wasn't it? And I said to myself at once, "Higginson's
the man for me. I want a courier with jolly lots of brains and no
blooming scruples. I'll entice this chap away from Marmy." And I did. I
outbid Marmy. Oh, yaas, he's a first-rate fellah, Higginson. What _I_
want is a man who will do what he's told, and ask no beastly unpleasant
questions. Higginson's that man. He's as sharp as a ferret.'

'And as dishonest as they make them.'

He opened his hands with a gesture of unconcern. 'All the bettah for my
purpose. See how frank I am, Miss Cayley. I tell the truth. The truth is
very rare. You ought to respect me for it.'

'It depends somewhat upon the _kind_ of truth,' I answered, with a
random shot. 'I don't respect a man, for instance, for confessing to a
forgery.'

He winced. Not for months after did I know how a stone thrown at a
venture had chanced to hit the spot, and had vastly enhanced his opinion
of my cleverness.

'You have heard about Dr. Fortescue-Langley too, I suppose?' I went on.

'Oh, yaas. Wasn't it real jam? He did the doctor-trick on a lady in
Switzerland. And the way he has come it ovah deah simple old Marmy! He
played Marmy with Ezekiel! Not so dusty, was it? He's too lovely for
anything!'

'He's an edged tool,' I said.

'Yaas; that's why I use him.'

'And edged tools may cut the user's fingers.'

[Illustration: YAH DON'T CATCH ME GOING SO FAH FROM NEWMARKET.]

'Not mine,' he answered, taking out a cigarette. 'Oh deah no. He can't
turn against _me_. He wouldn't dare to. Yah see, I have the fellah
entirely in my powah. I know all his little games, and I can expose him
any day. But it suits me to keep him. I don't mind telling yah, since I
respect your intellect, that he and