had been enabled to buy. He visibly purred with
content whenever his dim eyes caught sight of the new valise and steamer
trunk, which belonged to him, on the busy platform.

"You've been very kind to me, Thorpe," he said more than once, as they
stood together beside the open door of the compartment. "I was never
so hospitably treated before in my life. Your attention to me has been
wonderful. I call you a true friend."

"Oh, that's all right! Glad to do it," replied the other, lightly. In
truth he had not let Tavender stray once out of his sight during those
three days. He had dragged him tirelessly about London, showing him the
sights from South Kensington Museum to the Tower, shopping with him,
resting in old taverns with him, breakfasting, lunching, aud dining
with him--in the indefatigable resolution that he should strike up
no dangerous gossiping acquaintance with strangers. The task had been
tiresome in the extreme--but it had been very well worth while.

"One thing I'm rather sorry about," Tavender remarked, in apologetic
parenthesis--"I ought to have gone down and seen that brother-in-law of
mine in Kent. He's been very good to me, and I'm not treating him very
well. I wrote to tell him I was coming--but since then I haven't had
a minute to myself. However, I can write to him and explain how it
happened. And probably I'll be over again sometime."

"Why, of course," said Thorpe, absently. The allusion to the
brother-in-law in Kent had escaped his notice, so intent was he upon a
new congeries of projects taking vague shape in his mind.

"Think of yourself as my man out there," he said now, slowly, following
the clue of his thoughts. "There may be big things to do. Write to me as
often as you can. Tell me everything that's going on. Money will be no
object to me--you can have as much as you like--if things turn up out
there that are worth taking up. But mind you say nothing about me--or
any connection you've ever had with me. You'll get a letter from the
Secretary of a Company and the Chairman asking for a report on a certain
property, and naming a fee. You simply make a good report--on its
merits. You say nothing about anything else--about me, or the history of
the concession, or its validity, or anything. I mustn't be alluded to in
any way. You quite understand that?"

"Trust me!" said the old man, and wrung his benefactor's hand.

It was indeed with a trustful eye that Thorpe watched the train draw out
of