ry, what glory!" and in the exuberance of his
delight, Edmund Wynne gleefully rubbed his hands together.

"I am forgetting my errand, though," exclaimed the deputy-governor, "I
have a visitor for thee."

Edmund quailed. He was not in the habit of receiving visitors, for he
had few friends and many enemies, therefore the announcement gave him
very little pleasure.

"For me?" he said, in a tone of unmistakable surprise, and equally
unmistakable displeasure.

"Aye, for thee," Sir Ronald replied. "Shall I bring him to you?"

"Bring him down here?" screamed Edmund, aghast at the very idea. "No,
never."

"You will come up to him, then? It makes no matter!"

"I am too busy," he evasively replied. "Tell me, Ronald, who it is."

"'Tis a friend."

"Humph! He has heard of my elixir and wants--ah, well, I shall have
friends enough now, I'll warrant me."

"He is an enemy of Sir George Vernon, then," added the knight.

"Hey! Bring him down, then," said the alchemyst. "I will meet him
outside the room."

"Well, Master John Manners will be down by and bye. Lady Bury
meanwhile is entertaining him, for he was hungry."

Edmund started.

"Manners, John Manners!" he exclaimed. "Nay, then, bring him not
hither. Does he know that I am here?"

"Aye, I have told him."

"You have!" ejaculated Edmund, in a frenzy of terror. "I met him at
Haddon, he is a friend of the baron's."

"He was," replied his friend; "but things have changed, and now he is
like to invoke thy aid. He will help us to have our revenge, maybe,
for I have been persuading him; he is very bitter now against the
Vernons, and will make thee a good accomplice."

"Revenge," murmured Edmund, "ha! revenge is sweet. The baron shall be
punished; my machine--"

"Never mind the machine now," broke in Sir Ronald, who was by no means
anxious to listen to the well-worn rigmarole again. "You can show
that to him, and tell him all about it. I shall bring him down, for he
knows not the way."

"Well, I will yield to thee; do as you list," he replied, and the man
of science turned his back abruptly upon his friend, and vigorously
stirred the seething liquid which was beginning to boil over upon the
fire.

In a few minutes Manners appeared, but Sir Ronald Bury had brought him
purposely with so little noise that the alchemyst was not aware of his
presence, and for a long time they stood in the doorway, and watched
his movements.

He was talking to himself, as he often