ad not
gone fifty yards when he came running after.

"I entreat you, sir, to pardon me. I should have stopped the experiment
before. But I was startled--thrown off my balance. I am telling you
the truth, sir!"

"Very likely," said I. "The like has happened to other rash meddlers
before you."

"I declare to you I had no thought--" he began. But I interrupted him:

"'No thought,' indeed! I bring you here to resolve me, if you can, a
curious puzzle in archaeology, and you fall to playing devil's pranks
upon a half-witted child. 'No thought!'--I believe you, sir."

"And yet," he muttered, "it is an amazing business: the sand--the
_velarium_--the outstretched arm and hand--_pollice compresso_--the
exact gesture of the gladiatorial shows--"

"Are you telling me, pray, of gladiatorial shows under the Eastern
Empire?" I demanded scornfully.

"Certainly not: and that," he mused, "only makes it the more amazing."

"Now, look here," said I, halting in the middle of the road, "I'll hear
no more of it. Here is my gate, and there lies the highroad, on to
Porthlooe or back to Plymouth, as you please. I wish you good morning,
sir; and if it be any consolation to you, you have spoiled my digestion
for a week."

I am bound to say the young man took his dismissal with grace.
He halted then and there and raised his hat; stood for a moment
pondering; and, turning on his heel, walked quickly off towards
Porthlooe.

It must have been a week before I learnt casually that he had obtained
employment there as secretary to a small company owning the _Lord
Nelson_ and the _Hand-in-hand_ privateers. His success, as you know,
was rapid; and naturally in a gossiping parish I heard about it--a
little here, a little there--in all a great deal. He had bought the
_Providence_ schooner; he had acted as freighter for Minards' men in
their last run with the _Morning Star_; he had slipped over to Cork and
brought home a Porthlooe prize illegally detained there; he was in
London, fighting a salvage case in the Admiralty Court; . . . Within
twelve months he was accountant of every trading company in Porthlooe,
and agent for receiving the moneys due to the Guernsey merchants.
In 1809, as you know, he opened his bank and issued notes of his own.
And a year later he acquired two of the best farms in the parish,
Tresawl and Killifreeth, and held the fee simple of the harbour and
quays.

During the first two years of his prosperity I saw li