pens. You must not write to London, or to any one but me. I will
deliver your letters to Mary, and mail hers to you. Your name must be
James Wilton. When it is safe, I will write you to come home.'

"I saw the force of these directions, but asked how I was to live
during my stay from home, and what provisions would be made for my
family.

"Pierre replied: 'To-morrow you shall have one hundred pounds. I will
give Mary one hundred pounds on my arrival in Calcutta. In one year I
will pay each of you an additional hundred pounds. By that time, in all
probability, you can return, and I will pay the balance in five equal
annual installments.'

"This arrangement was made between us. I was in their power, and did
just as he said. In a short time I sailed for Paris with the promised
payment. The Laniers were to sail for Calcutta soon after. I have never
received any letter from either of them since. A letter came to me from
Mary, speaking of having received one hundred pounds, but not knowing
from whom. It was placed to her credit in a Calcutta bank, and notice to
that effect was left at the house. The letter was addressed to James
Wilton in a disguised hand, but the inside sheet was in Mary's
handwriting. She had been told at the bank that I was in Bombay.
Doubtless her letter went there, and was forwarded by some one
instructed by Pierre Lanier to me at Paris.

"Letters from my wife came regularly. I continued to write, as directed
by Pierre Lanier, and Mary received my letters. It was evident that
Pierre had furnished the information of my being in Bombay, and I kept
up the delusion.

"Life here in Paris, without employment, harassed by uncertainty,
compelled to pass under an assumed name, away from my family, and
obliged to keep up a deceitful correspondence with Mary, who supposed I
was in Bombay, became very miserable. Still there was no alternative. I
dreaded any failure to comply with the wishes of the Laniers. They would
hesitate at no crime to protect themselves. I believed they suspected me
of thinking Paul had murdered Oswald Langdon and Alice Webster. It would
be safer for me to be away from them. Would they not plot my death if I
were at Calcutta? If suspected or pursued, they might accuse me of the
crime, and both conspire to secure my conviction.

"After some time spent in Paris, Mary's letters ceased. I waited
anxiously, but none came. Writing for explanations, I received no
answer. My fears were aroused.