ed. "If I tell you the
story from start to finish, maybe you'll get a better idea of what we're
after."

"Would it take long?" I said diffidently. "It's fairly late now."

"If Mr. Cumshaw would stop to tea," Moira suggested, and looked to me
for approval of her proposition. Under the circumstances there was only
one thing for me to do, so I did it.

"You'll greatly oblige us if you stop," I said. "That is if it won't be
causing any inconvenience?" I added questioningly.

"None at all," he said cheerily. "Nothing of this sort ever
inconveniences me"--this latter with a glance at Moira.

"So that's the game, is it, young man?" I said to myself. "Well, here's
luck to you."

Aloud I said, "I am pleased to hear it." The funny part of it all was
that I really meant it. There was something open and honest about the
man himself, there was a healthful glow in his dark eyes, and he had a
way of looking at one that was the very essence of frankness itself.
Without knowing more of him than I had learnt in the few minutes we had
been conversing, I felt that he was as open as the day. In this case at
least my first impressions were more than justified by the course of
events.

* * * * *

Mr. Cumshaw stopped to tea and made himself very much at home, and
afterwards he told us the story of the gold escort. I have not set out
his tale as we heard it that evening. For one thing he only related what
he happened to know about the matter, and as a result there were many
little blanks he had to leave unfilled. But with the completion of our
enterprise many additional facts have come to light, and so it is that,
with Mr. Cumshaw's aid and at his suggestion, I give here a fuller and
more comprehensive version of the affair than he related to us that
evening.

PART II.

_THE ADVENTURES OF MR. ABEL CUMSHAW._

CHAPTER I.

NIGHTFALL.

Far away to the west the fiery globe of the setting sun dropped lazily
down to rest behind the quaint goblin peaks of the Grampians. Its last
lingering rays touched their summits with a crimson glow, flooded the
valleys with garish light, and even penetrated into the recesses of the
nearby woodlands until the whole place seemed to blaze as with the red
fire of Hell. It was not a peaceful sunset; it did not even hold the
promise of peace. It was alive and active, in the sense that light can
live, and one could but feel that its potency was malignant and as