ger, as I take it, Senor Murray, is from your fellow
countryman, Jack Harkaway."

"Yes."

"Then to him you must direct your attention. Where is he?"

"Gone."

"Where to?"

"Don't know."

"I do then," returned the notary, quietly: "and it is to tell you that
that I am here. I have all the necessary information; you must follow
him."

"Why?"

"To make sure of him," coldly replied the Spaniard.

"How?"

Velasquez spoke not.

But his meaning was just as clear as if he had put it into words.

A vicious dig with his stiletto at the air.

Nothing more.

And so they began to understand each other.

* * * *

Senor Velasquez, the notary, was playing a double game.

From Herbert Murray he carefully kept the knowledge that Chivey still
lived.

And why?

That knowledge would have lessened his hold.

The cunning way in which he let Herbert Murray understand that he knew
all, even to the attempt upon Chivey's life at the gravel pits,
completed the mastery in which he meant to hold the young rascal.

He arranged everything for young Murray.

He discovered from him the destination of the ship in which Jack
Harkaway and his friends had escaped, and he procured him a berth on a
vessel sailing in the same direction.

"Once you get within arm's length of this young Harkaway," he said;
"you must be firm and let your blow be sure."

"I will," returned his pupil.

"Once Harkaway is removed from your path, you may sleep in peace, for
he alone can now punish you for forgery."

"I hope so."

"I know it," said Velasquez.

So well were the notary's plans laid, and so luckily did fortune play
into his hands, that forty-eight hours after his interview with Murray,
he had that young gentleman safely on board a ship outward bound.

Now Herbert Murray had passed but one night after that fearful scene by
the gravel pit, but the remembrance of it haunted his pillow from the
moment he went to bed to the moment he arose unrefreshed and full of
fever.

And yet he was setting out with the intention of securing his future
peace and immunity from peril by the commission of a fresh crime.

The ship was setting sail at a little after daybreak, and it had been
arranged that Senor Velasquez was to come and see him off.

But much to his surprise, the notary did not put in an appearance.

Eagerly he waited for the ship to start, lest any thing should occur at
the eleventh hour