n that attempt to
defraud the Parisian jewellers, Maurel and Company, two years ago?"

"Yes, sir, I remember him perfectly," Turner replied. "A tall, burly
man, with a bushy beard, the top of his little finger on the left hand
missing, and a long white scar over his right eyebrow."

"The same," I answered. "I see you have not forgotten him. Well, I want
you to find him out, and let me have an exact account of his movements
during the next three weeks. The office will arrange your expenses in
the usual way, and you had better leave by the mail-train. In all
probability I shall see you off."

"Very good, sir," the man responded, and withdrew.

He had scarcely gone before one of my clerks entered the room and handed
me a card. On it was printed the name of Mr. Edward Bayley, and in the
left-hand bottom corner was the announcement that he was the Managing
Director of the Santa Cruz Mining Company of Forzoda, in the
Argentine Republic.

"Show the gentleman in, Walters," I said.

In a few minutes a tall, handsome man, irreproachably turned out,
entered the office. He seated himself in a chair the clerk placed for
him, put his hat and umbrella on another, and then turned to me.

"My card has made you familiar with my name, Mr. Fairfax," he began,
"and doubtless, if you are at all familiar with mines and mining, you
are acquainted with the name of the company I have the honour to
represent?"

"I am very much afraid the Mining Market does not possess very much
interest for me," I replied. "I have to work so hard for my money, that
when I have got it I prefer to invest it in something a little more
reliable. May I inquire the nature of your business with me?"

"I have come to see you, Mr. Fairfax," he said, speaking very
impressively, and regarding me deliberately as he did so, "on rather a
delicate subject. Before I explain what it is, may I ask that you will
treat what I am about to tell you as purely confidential?"

"My business is invariably a confidential one," I answered for the
second time in two days. "I venture to think that this room has heard
more secrets than almost any other in England. But though they say walls
have ears, I have never heard it said that they have tongues."

"It is sometimes a good thing that they have not," he replied. "And now
let me tell you what business has brought me here. In the first place,
if you do not already know it, I may say that the Company I represent is
an exceedingly we