d with intelligence--"

Here Mr. Fortescue paused, as if to reflect; and, though the observation
was not very flattering--hardly civil, indeed--I was so anxious to hear
this story that I took it in good part, and waited patiently for his
decision.

"To relate it _viva voce_" he went on, thoughtfully, "would be troublesome
to both of us."

"I am sure I should find it anything but troublesome."

"Well, I should. It would take too much time, and I hate travelling over
old ground. But that is a difficulty which I think we can get over. For
many years I have made a record of the principal events of my life, in the
form of a personal narrative; and though I have sometimes let it run
behind for a while, I have always written it up."

"That is exactly the thing. As you say, telling a long story is
troublesome. I can read it."

"I am afraid not. It is written in a sort of stenographic cipher of my own
invention."

"That is very awkward," I said, despondently. "I know no more of shorthand
than of Sanskrit, and though I once tried to make out a cipher, the only
tangible result was a splitting headache."

"With the key, which I will give you, a little instruction and practice,
you should have no difficulty in making out my cipher. It will be an
exercise for your intelligence"--smiling. "Will you try?"

"My very best."

"And now for the conditions. In the first place, you must, in stenographic
phrase, 'extend' my notes, write out the narrative in a legible hand and
good English. If there be any blanks, I will fill them up; if you require
explanations, I will give them. Do you agree?"

"I agree."

"The second condition is that you neither make use of the narrative for
any purpose of your own, nor disclose the whole or any part of it to
anybody until and unless I give you leave. What say you?"

"I say yes."

"The third and last condition is, that you engage to stay with me in your
present capacity until it pleases me to give you your _conge_. Again what
say you?"

This was rather a "big order," and very one-sided. It bound me to remain
with Mr. Fortescue for an indefinite period, yet left him at liberty to
dismiss me at a moment's notice; and if he went on living, I might have to
stay at Kingscote till I was old and gray. All the same, the position was
a good one. I had four hundred a year (the price at which I had modestly
appraised my services), free quarters, a pleasant life, and lots of
hunting--all I could wis