ectitude of your conduct, Mr. Quatermain, moves me to the
deepest gratitude, though indeed I wish that I had put something into
the food of the knave Jacob who beguiled us all, that would have caused
him internal pangs of a severe if not of a dangerous order. My holding
in the gold mine was not extensive, but the unpaid bill of the said
Jacob and his friends----"

Here I cut him short and fled, since I saw yet another shareholder
galloping to the gate, and behind him two more in a spider. First I took
refuge in my room, my idea being to put away that pile of letters. In so
doing I observed that there was one still unopened. Half mechanically
I took it from the envelope and glanced at its contents. They were
word for word identical with those of that addressed to "Mr. Hans,
Hottentot," only my name was at the bottom of it instead of that of Hans
and the cheque was for L1,500, the amount I had paid for the shares I
held in the venture.

Feeling as though my brain were in a melting-pot, I departed from the
house into a patch of native bush that in those days still grew upon the
slope of the hill behind. Here I sat myself down, as I had often
done before when there was a knotty point to be considered, aimlessly
watching a lovely emerald cuckoo flashing, a jewel of light, from tree
to tree, while I turned all this fairy-godmother business over in my
mind.

Of course it soon became clear to me. Lord Ragnall in this case was
the little old lady with the wand, the touch of which could convert
worthless share certificates into bank-notes of their face value. I
remembered now that his wealth was said to be phenomenal and after
all the cash capital of the company was quite small. But the question
was--could I accept his bounty?

I returned to the house where the first person whom I met was Lord
Ragnall himself, just arrived from some interview about the fifty Snider
rifles, which were still in bond. I told him solemnly that I wished to
speak to him, whereon he remarked in a cheerful voice,

"Advance, friend, and all's well!"

I don't know that I need set out the details of the interview. He
waited till I had got through my halting speech of mingled gratitude and
expostulation, then remarked:

"My friend, if you will allow me to call you so, it is quite true that I
have done this because I wished to do it. But it is equally true that to
me it is a small thing--to be frank, scarcely a month's income; what I
have saved trave