alf of your fortune.
If we have luck we shall find the remainder in Sander's hands at
Genoa."

And Alphonse Giraud must needs embrace me, hurting my shoulder most
infernally, and pouring out a rapid torrent of apology and
self-recrimination.

"I listened when it was hinted to me that you were not honest," he
cried, "that you were not seeking the money at all, or that you had
already recovered it! I have watched you as if you were a thief--Mon
Dieu, what a scoundrel I have been."

"At all events you have the money now."

"Yes." He paused, fingering the papers, while he thoughtfully looked
down into the valley. "Yes, Dick--and it cannot buy me what I want."

Thus we are, and always shall be, when we possess at length that for
which we have long yearned.

We made a further search in Miste's pockets, and found nothing. The
man's clothing was of the finest, and his linen most clean and delicate.
I had a queer feeling of regret that he should be dead--having wanted
his life these many months and now possessing it. Ah--those accomplished
desires! They stalk through life behind us--an army of silent ghosts.
For months afterwards I missed him--incomprehensible though this may
appear. A good foe is a tonic to the heart. Some of us are virtuous for
the sake of our friends--others pay the tribute to their foes.

There was still plenty of work for us to do, though neither was in a
state to execute it. My left arm had stiffened right down to the
fingers, which kept closing up despite my endeavours to keep life and
movement in them. The hurt in my cheek had fortunately ceased
bleeding, and Giraud bound it up with Miste's handkerchief. I recall
the scent of the fine cambric to this day, and when I smell a like
odour see a dead man lying on a snow-field.

We composed Miste in a decent attitude, with his slim hands crossed on
his breast, and then turned our steps downward towards St. Martin
Lantosque. To one who had never known a day's illness, the fatigue
consequent upon the loss of so much blood was particularly irksome,
and I cursed my luck many a time as we stumbled over the snow. Giraud
would not let me finish the brandy in his flask, but kept some for an
emergency.

The peasants were at work in the fields when we at length reached the
valley, and took no heed of us. We told no one of Miste lying alone on
the snow far above, but went straight to the gendarmerie, where we
found the chief--a sensible man, himself an old so