press
of the flying griffin, which I knew to be the general's crest. It
was further secured by a band of broad tape, which I cut with my
pocket-knife. Across the outside was written in bold handwriting: "J.
Fothergill West, Esq.," and underneath: "To be handed to that gentleman
in the event of the disappearance or decease of Major-General J. B.
Heatherstone, V.C., C.B., late of the Indian Army."

So at last I was to know the dark secret which had cast a shadow over
our lives. Here in my hands I held the solution of it.

With eager fingers I broke the seals and undid the wrapper. A note and a
small bundle of discoloured paper lay within. I drew the lamp over to me
and opened the former. It was dated the preceding afternoon, and ran in
this way:

MY DEAR WEST,--

I should have satisfied your very natural curiosity on the subject which
we have had occasion to talk of more than once, but I refrained for your
own sake. I knew by sad experience how unsettling and unnerving it is
to be for ever waiting for a catastrophe which you are convinced must
befall, and which you can neither avert nor accelerate.

Though it affects me specially, as being the person most concerned, I am
still conscious that the natural sympathy which I have observed in you,
and your regard for Gabriel's father, would both combine to render you
unhappy if you knew the hopelessness and yet the vagueness of the fate
which threatens me. I feared to disturb your mind, and I was therefore
silent, though at some cost to myself, for my isolation has not been the
least of the troubles which have weighed me down.

Many signs, however, and chief among them the presence of the Buddhists
upon the coast as described by you this morning, have convinced me that
the weary waiting is at last over and that the hour of retribution is at
hand. Why I should have been allowed to live nearly forty years after my
offence is more than I can understand, but it is possible that those who
had command over my fate know that such a life is the greatest of all
penalties to me.

Never for an hour, night or day, have they suffered me to forget that
they have marked me down as their victim. Their accursed astral bell has
been ringing my knell for two-score years, reminding me ever that there
is no spot upon earth where I can hope to be in safety. Oh, the peace,
the blessed peace of dissolution! Come what may on the other side of the
tomb, I shall at least be quit of that thrice te