make you a present of $10,000. It should be
enough capital to start in any business."

Handsome shrugged his shoulders.

"Charity?" he exclaimed.

"No--not charity--brotherly affection."

His brother laughed mockingly. Bitterly he exclaimed:

"Maybe it's conscience money."

"What do you mean?"

"You inherited from our father, didn't you?"

"Yes--but I've increased it a hundred-fold by my own efforts."

"How much did he leave you?"

"Twenty thousand dollars."

"Why didn't he leave me some?"

"He believed you dead. The sum I offer you is the sum you would have
inherited from our father had he known you were living. Do you accept?"

Handsome was silent. His brain was working fast. What this man
offered him was the merest pittance. Put out at interest, it would
give him the princely income of $10 a week. What did he care for the
good opinion of the world? He had knocked about so long, roughing it
everywhere, that he might as well end as he had begun--an adventurer.
Suddenly there flashed across his brain a wild, audacious idea--a
scheme so fantastic, so fraught with adventure and peril that the very
thought gave him a thrill. It involved violence, possibly a crime.
Well, what of it? He was not the kind to be deterred by trifles. This
man was nothing to him. Brotherly love, family ties--these were simply
phrases to one who had never known them. He knew and obeyed only one
instinct--the fight for life, the survival of the fittest. Society had
waged war on him; he would be merciless in his war on society. This
man--this alleged brother, threw him a sop, insulted him by offering
him charity. Why should he hesitate? It was his life or another's.
There was a big prize to be won. Life was sweet when one has millions
to enjoy it with. This man had now on his person diamonds worth over a
million and he had more millions at home. Suppose something happened
to this man here in South Africa and he went home in his stead to take
his place in his household and enjoy his millions? Who would know the
difference?

Impatient at the other's silence Kenneth demanded somewhat sharply:

"Well--what do you say? Do you accept?"

He looked straight at his _vis-a-vis_, but Handsome avoided his direct
gaze. He was silent for another moment as if reflecting. Then,
slowly, he said:

"Yes, I accept."

CHAPTER IX

The string orchestra, adroitly concealed behind a bank of graceful
exotic plants, str