out hope. Admirable nurse secured. Brandram and I
remain here."

Captain Oliphant derived scant consolation from this announcement, and
quite forgot his business engagement in his mortification and ill
temper. He dropped in during the day to see Mr Pottinger, to discuss
his grievance with that legal luminary. But Mr Pottinger, as the
reader is aware, had complications of another kind to disclose. He
astonished his visitor with an account of the surprise visit of Mr
Ratman a few days previously, and of that gentleman's astounding claims
to the name of Ingleton.

"What!" exclaimed the captain, "you mean to say that scoundrel actually
claimed to be the lost son? I always had a high opinion of his
impudence, but I never imagined it capable of that. Why, my dear sir, I
have known him as a pettifogging money-lender in India for years."

"Quite so; but did you know why and when he came to India?"

"I can't say I did. Surely you don't credit his story?"

"Well, not exactly. But it strikes me the gentleman will give us some
difficulty."

"Why? What good can it do him even if he is what he claims! He cannot
upset the will, which emphatically cuts him out of every possibility of
benefit."

"No; that leaves him no loophole, certainly. But he may calculate on
working on the chivalry of his younger brother, or if that fails, on
blackmailing him."

"If so, he will have us to deal with. For once in a way Armstrong and I
are likely to be of the same opinion. Surely there is evidence enough
to prosecute for conspiracy."

"Hardly. He claims nothing but the name. He admits he has no rights.
My opinion, Captain Oliphant, is that we have not heard the end of him."

"Very likely not, especially as I unluckily owe him money."

"That is awkward. The sooner you square accounts and get rid of him the
better."

"Easier said than done," remarked the captain, and returned with a
decided headache to Maxfield.

Roger, with Armstrong to nurse him, with Dr Brandram to attend him,
with his own strong bias towards life to buoy him up, emerged slowly
from the valley of the shadow of death, and in due time stood once more
on his feet. Weeks before that happened he had told and heard all that
was to be said about his lost brother. Dr Brandram had recounted the
incident at Miss Jill's party, and he in turn had confided to his tutor
his meeting with Fastnet, and the feeble clue in which that conference
had resulted.

"Arms