tumoi^ BERKELEY LIBRARY UWJVERSITY OF CALIPORNIA ti.^ ^^^ iiH^ U i^t^'i^^ Z o-' ^ U-y^ ^2^ Cbe Jlulbor's eaiiion RUN TO EARTH NOVELS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. Lady Audley's Secret. Henry Dunbar. r.leanor's Victory. Aurora Floyd. John Marchmont's Legacy. The Doctor's Wife. Only a Clod. Sir Jasper's Tenant. Trail of the Serpent. The Lady's Mile. Lady Lisle. Captain of the Vulture. Birds of Prey. Charlotte's Inheritance. P.upert Godwin. Run to Earth. Dead Sea Fruit. Ralph the Bailiff. Fenton's Quest. Lovels of Arden. Robert Ainsleigh. To the Bitter End. Willy Darrell. Strangers and Pilgrims. Lucius Davoren. Taken at the Flood. Lost for Love. A Strange World. Hostages to Fortune. Dead Men's Shoes. Joshua Haggard. Weavers and Weft. An Open Verdict. Vixen. ihe Cloven Foot. The Story of Barbara, Just as I am. Asphodel. Mount Royal. The Golden Calf. Phantom Fortune. Flower aiid Weed Ishmael. Wyllard's Weird. Under the Red Flag. One Thing Needful. Mohawks. Like and Unlike. The Fatal Three. The Day will come. One Life, One Love. Gerard. The Venetians. All along the River. Thou art the Man. TheChristmas Hirelings. Sons of Fire. London Pride. Under Love's Rule. Rough Justice. In High Places. His DarHng Sin. The Infidel. The Conflict. A Lost Eden. R UN TO EARTH ^^^' . t , B, M. E.^BRADDON Aui/ior of ''LADY A UDLEVS SECRET," " VIXEN ''LONDON PRIDE," ETC. ^ Xonbon SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & CO., Ltd. CONTENTS. 1 '^ I. Warned in a Dream ,♦♦,,. 1 II. Done in the Darkness ■. » * . . 13 in. Disinherited ..,..,.. 27 rv. Out or the Depths 34 T. " Evil, be Thou my Good ! ■ 46 VI. AuLD Robin Gray 51 VII. " O Beware, My Lord, of Jealousy I *' , .72 VIII. After the Pic-nic 85 IX. On Yarborough Tower 96 X. "How ART Thou Lost! How on a Suddkn Lost I" 106 XI. "The Will! the Testament! " . . . .115 XII. A Friend in Need ..*.... 137 xiii. In Your Patience Ye are Strong , , . 151 xrv. A Ghostly Visitant 160 XV. A Terrible Resolve ....... 3171 jvi. Waiting and Watching ..... 182 XV ij. Doubtful Society .187 I VIII. At Anchor 200 XIX. A Familiar Token ....... 205 XX. On Guard 211 XXI. Down in Dorsetshire 225 XXII. Arch-Traitor Within, Arch-Plotter Without 232 XXIII. " Answer me, if This be Done ? " . . . . 245 XXIV. "I AM Weary of my Part" .... 258 XXV. A Dangerous Alliance 274 XXVI. Move the First 286 xxvii. Weave the Warp, and Weave the Woof . . 289 rxviii. Preparing the Ground ..... 298 XXIX. At Watch 303 XXX. Fount) Wanting ...... 307 XXXI. "A Worthless Woman, MERE Cold Clat" . . 320 ixxii. A Meeting and an Explanation . . . 328 xxxin. "Treason has Done his Worst" .... 336 xxxiv. Caught in the Toils 348 XXXV. Larkspur to the Rescue! ..... 353 xxxvi. On the Track 363 ixxvn. " O, above Measure False I " 371 rxxviii. "Thy Day is Come" 389 xxxix. " Confusion Worse than Death "... 398 xIm "So Shall t» Eiur»" 405 697 CHAPTER 1. WAluSJiD LN A DUE AM. 6£VE>t'-AJfD-TWENTY years ago, and a bleak evening in MarcL There aie gas-lamps llaring down in Eatcliff Highway, and the sound of squeaking fiddles and trampling feet in many public-houses tell of festivity provided for Jack-along-shore. The emporiums of slop-sellers are illuminated for the better display of tarpaulin coats and hats, so stiff of build that they look like so many sea-faring suicides, pendent from the low ceilings. These emporiums are here and there enlivened by festoons of many-coloured bandana handkerchiefs; and on ever)- pane of glass in shop or tavern window is painted the glowing representation of Britannia's pride, the immortal Union Jack. Two men sat drinking and smoking in a Httle parlour at the back of an old public -house in Shadwell. The room was about ae large as a good-sized cupboard, and was illuminated in the day-time by a window commanding a pleasant prospect of coal-shed and dead walk The paper on the walls was dark and greasy with age ; and every bit of clumsy, bulging deal furni- ture in the room had been transformed into a kind of ebony by the action of time and dirt, the greasy backs and elbows of idle loungers, the tobacco-smoke and beer-stains of half a century. It was evident that the two men smokin;^ and drinking in this darksome little den belonged to the seafaring community. In this they resembled each other; but in notliing else. One was tall and stalwart; the other was small, and ^vizen, and mis- shapen. One had a dark, bronzed face, with a frank, fearless expression; the other was pale and freckled, and had small. li'T'-ht-gray eyes, that shifted and blinked j^erpetaally, and shifted and blinked most when he was talking with most animation. The first had a sonorous bass voice and a resonant laugh; the second spoke in suppressed tones, and had a trick of droppinj^ nis voice to a whisper whenever he was most enerizetic. ^ The first was captain and half-owner of the brigantinf- ** Pizarro," trading between the port of London and the coast of Mexico. The second was his clerk, factotum, and confidant; half- sailor, half-landsman : able to take the helm in dangeroui 2 * Run to Earth. weather, if need were ; and able to afford hia employer ooonad iu the most intricate questions of trading and speculation. The name of the captain was Valentine Jernam, that of his factotum Joyce Harker. The captain had found him in an Ameri- can liospital, had taken compassion upon him, and had offered him a free passage home. On the homeward voyage, Joyce Harker had shown himself so handy a personage, that Captain Jernam had declined to part with him at the end of the cruise: and from that time, the wizen little hunchback had been tha stalwart seaman's friend and companion. For fifteen years, during which Valentine Jernam and his younger brother, George, had been traders on the high seas, things had gone well with these two brothers ; but never had fortune so liberally favoured their trading as during the four years in which Joyce Harker had prompted every commercial adventure, and guided every speculation. " Four years to-day, Joyce, since I first set eyes upon your face in the hospital at New Orleans," said Captain Jernam, in the confidence of this jovial hour. *' ' Why, the fellow's dead,' Baid I. ' No ; he's only dying,' says the doctor. ' What's the matter with him P' asked I. ' Home-sickness and empty pockets,' says the doctor; *he was employed in a gaming-house in the city, got knocked on the head in some row, and was brought here. We've got him through a fever that was likely enough to have finished him ; but there he lies, as weak as a starved rat. He has neither money nor friends. He wants to get back to England ; but he has no more hope of ever seeing that country than I have of being Emperor of Mexico.' ' Hasn't he ?' says I ; ' we'll tell you a different story about that, Mr. Doctor. If you can patch the poor de\al up between this and next Monday, I'll take him home in my ship, without the passage costing him sixpence.' You don't feel offended with me for having called you a poor devil, eh, Joyce ? — for you really were, you know — you really were an uncommonly poor creature just then," mur- uinred the captain, apologetically. " Offended with you ! " exckimed the factotum ; " that's a likely thing. Don't T owe you my life ? How many more of my countrymen passed me by as I lay on that hospital-bed, and loft me to rot there, for all they cared ? I heard their loud voices and their creaking boots as I lay there, too weak to lift my eyelids and look at them ; but not too weak to curse them." " No, Joyce, don't say that." *' But I do say it ; and what's more, I mean it. I'll tell you what it is, captain, there's a general opinion that when a man's •ihouMers are crooked, his mind is crooked too; and that, if his boor unfortunate legs have shrivelled up small, his heart must liave hhrivelled up small to match 'em. I dare say there's &ome Warned in a Bream. 8 h ath in the general opinion ; for, jou see, it doesn't improve a man's temper to find himself cnt ont according to a different pattern from that his fello\v-creatures have been made by, and to lind his fellow-creatnres setting themselves against him because of that difference; and it doesn't soften a poor wretch's heart towards the world in general, U) find the world in general harder than stone against him, for no better reason than'his poor weak legs and his poor crooked back. But never mind talking about me and my feehngs, captain. I ain't of so much accou'nt as to make it worth while for a fine fellow like you to waste words upon me. What I want to know is your plans. You don't Intend to stop down tliis way, do you ?" "Why shouldn't I. »" " Because it's a dangerous way for a man who carries his for- tune about him, as you do. I wish you'd make up your mind to bank that money, captain." "Not if I know it," answered the sailor, with a look of pro- found wisdom ; " not if I k:;ow it, Joyce Harker. I know whai your bankers are. You go to them some fine afternoon, and find a lot of clerks standing behind a bran new mahogany counter, everything bright, and shining, and respectable. ' Can I leave a few hundreds on deposit ? ' asks you. ' Why, of course you can,' reply they ; and then you hand over your money, and then they Land you back a little bit of paper. ' That's your receipt,' say they. • All right,' say you ; and off you sheer. Perhaps you fe«jl just a little bit queerish, when you get outside, to think that all your solid cash has been melted down into that morsel of p.'iper; bat being a lii^^ht-hearted, easy-going fellow, you don't think any more of it, till you come home from your next voyage, and go ashore again, and want your money; when it's ten to one ff you don't find your fine new bank shut up, and your clejks and bran-new mahogany counter vanished. Xo, Joyce, I'll trust no bankers." " I'd rather trust the bankers than the people down this way, any day^in the week," answered the clerk, thoughtfully. " Don't you worry yourself, Joyce ! The money won't be in my keeping very long. George ia to meet me in London on the fiflh of April, at the latest, he says, unless winds and waves are more contrary than ever they've' been since he's had to do with them ; and you know George is my banker. I'm only a sleeping partner in the firm of Jemam Brothers. George takes the money, and George does what he hkes with it — puts it here and there, and speculates in this and specidates in that. You've got % business head of your own, Joyce; you're one of George's own g^.rt; and you are up to all his dodges, which is more than I am. However, he tells me we're getting rich, and that's pleasant aaou^di— not that I think I should break my heart about it if we 4 IiHH to Earth. were getting poor. I .luxe the sea because it is the sea, and 1 love my ship for her own sake." " Captain George is right, though," answered the clerk. " Jer- nam Brothers are growing rich ; Jernam Brothers are prospering. But you haven't told me your plans yet, captain." '• Well, since you say I had better cut this quarter, T suppose I must ; though I like to see the rigging above the housetops, and to hear the jolly voices of the sailors, and to know that the " Pizarro '' lies hard by in the Pool. However, there's an old aunt of mine, down in a sleepy little village in Devonshire, who'd be glad to see me, and none the worse for a small slice of Jernam Brothers' good luck; so I'll take a place on the Plymouth coach to-morrow morning, and go down and have a peep at her. You'll be ab^e to keep a look-out on the repairs aboard of the " Pizarro," and I can be back in time to meet George on the fifth,** " Where are you to meet him P" " In tliis room." The factotum shook his head. " You're both a good deal too fond of this house," he said ** The people that have got it now are strangers to us. They've bought the business since our last trip. I don't like the look oi them." "No more do I, if it comes to that. I was sorry to hear the old folks had been done up. But come, Joyce, some more rum- and-water. Let's enjoy ourselves to-night, man, if I'm to start by the first coach to-morrow morning. What's that ?" The captain stopped, with the bell-rope in his hand, to listen to the sound of music close at hand. A woman's voice, fresh and clear as the song of a sky-lark, was singing " Wapping Old Stairs," to the accompaniment of a feeble old piano. " What a voice !" cried the sailor. " Why, it seems to pierce to the very core of my heart as I listen to it. Let's go and hear the music, Joyce." " Better no^ captain," answered the warning voice of the clerk. •' I tell you they're a bad lot in this house. It's a sort of concert they give of a night ; an excuse for drunkenness, and riot, and low company. If you're going by the coach to-morrow, you'd better get to bed early to-night. You've been drinking quite enough as it is." "Drinking!" cried Valentine Jernam; " why, I'm as sober as a judge. Come, Joyce, let's go and listen to "that girl's sin^r ing." The captain left the room, and Harker followed, shrugging his shoulders as he went. "There's nothing so hard to manage as a baby of thirty years nl.l," he muttered^ "a blessed infant that one's obliged to cUJ chaste? " Warned in a Dream. 5 He followed the captain, tlirougli a fli^^'J little passage, into a room with a sanded tloor, and a little platform at one end The room was full of sailors and disreputable-looking women ; and was lighted by several jets of coarse gas, which tiarcd in Liie bleak March wind. A group of black -bearded, foreign-looking seamen made room for the captain and his companion at one of the tables. Jemam acknowledged their courtesy with a friendly nod. " I don't mind standing treat for a civil fellow like you," he said; "come, mates, what do you say to a bowl of punch?" The men looked at him and grinned a ready assent. Valentine Jemam called the landlord, and ordered a bowl of rum-punch. " Plenty of it, remember, and be sure you are not too liberal with the water," said the captain. The landlord nodded and laughed. He was a broad-shouldered, square-built man, with a flat, pale face, broad and square, Hke his figure — not a pleasant-looking man by any means. Valentine Jernam folded his arms on the rickety, liquor-stained table, and took a leisurely survey of the apartment. There was a pause in the concert just now. The girl had finished her song, and sat by the old square piano, waiting till she should be required to sing again. There were only two per- formers in this primitive species of concert — the girl who sang, and an old blind man, who accompanied her on the piano ; but such entertainment was quite sufficient for the patrons of thg " Jolly Tar," seven-ar»d-twenty years ago, before the splendours of modern music-halls nad arisen in the land. Valentine Jernam's dark eyes wandered round the room, till they lighted on the face of the girl sitting by the piano. Thei>* ^hey fixed themselves all at once, and seemed as if rooted to the face on which they looked. It was a pale, oval face, framed in 6ands of smooth black hair, and lighted by splendid black eyss ; the face of a Eoman empress rather than a singing-girl at a pubHc-house in Shad well. JTever before had Valentine Jemam looked on so fair a woman. He had never been a student or admirer of the weaker sex. He had a vague kind of idea that there were women, and mermaids, and other dangerous creatures, lurking somewhere in this world, for the destruction of honest men; but beyond this he had very few ideas on the subject. Other people were taking very little notice of the singer. The regular patrons of the "Jolly Tar" were accustomed to her beauty and her singing, and thought very little about her. Thy girl was very quiet, very modest. She came and went under the care of the old blind pianist, whom she called her grandfather, and she seemed to shrink alike from observation or admiration. She began to sing again presently. 6 Run to Earth. She stood by the piano, facing tlie audience, calm as a statue, with her large black eyes looking straight before her. The old Ijaan listened to her eagerly, as he played, and nodded fond approval every now and then, as the full, rich notes fell upon hia ear. The poor blind face was illuminated with the musician's rapture. It seemed as if the noisy, disreputable audience had no existence for these two people, '* What a lovely creature!" exclaimed the captain, in a tone of iubdued intensity. " Yes, she's a pretty girl," muttered the clerk, coolly. *' A pretty girl!" echoed Jemam; "an angel, you mean I I did not know there were such women in the world ; and to think that such a woman should be here, in this place, in the mi'1i>t of all this tobacco-smoke, and noise, and blasphemy ! It seema hard, doesn't it, Joyce .5^" " I don't see that it's any harder for a pretty woman than an ugly one," replied Harker, sententiously. " If the girl had red hair and a snub nose, you wouldn't take the trouble to pity her. I don't see why you should concern yourself about her, because f*\\e happens to have black eyes and red lips. I dare say she's a bad lot, like most of 'em about here, and would as soon pick your IX)cket as look at you, if you gave her the chance." Valentine Jemam made no reply to these observations. It is possible that he scarcely heard them. The punch came presently ; out he pushed the bowl towards Joyce, and bade that gentleman dispense the mixture. His own glass remained before him un- touched, while the foreign seamen and Joyce Harker emptied the bowl. ^\Tien the girl sang, he listened ; when she sat in a listless attitude, in the pauses between her songs, he watched her face. Until she had finished her last song, and left the platform, it^ading her blind companion by the hand, the captain of the *• Pizarro " seemed like a creature under the influence of a spelh 'l'':]tire was only one exit from the room, so the singing-girl and her grandlatner had to pass along the narrow space between the tv/o rows of tables. Her dark stuff dress brushed against Jer- TXLia as she passed him. To the last, his eyes followed her %vith U\s same entranced gaze. When she had gone, and the door had closed upon her, ha started suddenly to his feet, and followed. He was just in time wO see her leave the house with her grandfather, and with a big, iil-looking man, half-sailor, half-landsman, who had been drink- IRS at the bar. The landlord was standing behind the bar, drawing beer, as Jemam looked out into the street, watching the recedin» figures tf the girl and her two companions. •* She's a pretty grirl, isn't wher' " said the landlord, as Jemam lli-nt til ft dorir Warned in a Dream. 7 " She 18, mdeeul play." " You're a good fellow, Joyce ; but though yon've pluck enough for twenty in a storm at sea, you're as timid as a baby at home." " I'm like a dog, captain — I can smell danger when it threatens those I love. Hark ! what's that ? " They were goin^ down stairs quietly, m the darkness of the early spring morning. The clerk's quick ear caught the sound of a stealthy footstep; and in the next minute they were face to face with a man who was ascending the narrow stairs. " You're early astir, Mr. "Wayman," said Joyce Harker, re- cognizing the landlord of the " Jolly Tar." " And so are you, for the matter of that," answered the host. " My captain is off by an early coach, and I'm going to walk to the office with him," returned Joyce. " Off by an early coach, is he ? Then, if he can stop to drink it, I'll make him a cup of coffee." " You're very good," answered Joyce, hastily ; "but you see, the captain hasn't time for that, if he's going to catch the coach." "Are you going into the country for long, captain?" asked the landlord. "Wei], no; not for long, mate ; for I've got an appointment to keep in this house, on the fifth of April, with a brother of mine, who's homeward-bound from Barbadoes. You see, my brother and me are partners ; whatever good luck one has he shares it with the other. We've been uncommon lucky lately." The captain slapped his hand upon one of his capacious pockets as lie spoke. Dennis Wayman watched the gesture with eager ey^s. AH throu?:h Valentine's eppeoh. Joyce Harker had been Warned in u Vream. 9 trying to arrest his attention, bnt trying in vain. When the owner of the " Pizarro " begaa to talk, it was very difflcnlt U stop him. The captain bade the landlord a cheerful good day, and de- parted with his faithful follower. Out in the street, Joyce Harker remonstrated with his employer. ** I told you that fellow was not to be trusted, captain," he ''aid ; " and yet you blabbed to him about the money." •' Nonsense, Joyce. I didn't say a word about money." " Didn't yon though, captain P You said quite enough to let that man know you'd got the cash about you. But you won't go back to that place till you go to meet Captain George on the fifth?" "Of course not." " You won't change your mind, captain P ** "Not I." *• Because, you see, I shall be down at Blackwall, looking after the repairs, for it will be sharp work to get finished against you want to sail for Rio. So, you see, I shall be out of the way. A.nd if you did go back to that house alone. Lord knows what they might try on." " Don't you be afraid, Joyce. In the first place I shan't go back there till twelve o'clock on the fifth. I'll come up from Plymouth by the night coach, and putupatthe "Golden Cross" iike a gentleman. And, in the second place, I flatter myself I'm a match for any set of land-sharks in creation." " No, you're not, captain. No honest man is ever a match for a scoundrel." Jemam and his companion carried the captain's portmanteau l)etween them. They hailed a hackney-coach presently, and drove to the *' Golden Cross," through the chill, gray streets, where the closed shutters had a funereal aspect. At the coach-office they parted, with many friendly words on both sides ; but to the last, Joyce Harker was grave and anxious. The last he saw of his friend and employer was the captain's dark face looking out of the coach- window ; the captain's hand waved in cordial farewell. " What a good fellow he is !— what a noble fellow ! " thought the wizen little clerk, as he trudged back towards the City. "But was there ever a baby so helpless on shore? — was there ever an ^inocent infant that needed so much looking after P " • • # • • Valentine Jemam arrived at Plymouth early the next morning, and walked from Plymouth to the little village of Allanbay, in which lived the only relative he had in the world, except his irother George. Walking at a leisurely pace along the quiet toad. Captain Jemam, although not usually a thoughtful per«on« 10 Bwn to Earth. was fain to think about something, ajid fell to thinking ovei the past. Light-hearted ani cheery of spirit as the adventurous sailoi was now-a-days, his childhood had been a very sad one. Mother- less at eight years of age, and ill-used by a drunken father, the boy had suffered as the children of the poor too often suffer. His mother had died, leaving George an infant of less than twelve months old ; and from the hour of her death^ Valentine had been the infant's sole nurse and protector ; standing between the helpless little one and the father's brutality ; enduring all hardships cheerfully, so long as he was able to shelter little Georgy. On more than one occasion, the elder boy had braved and defied his father in defence of the younger brother. It was scarcely strange, therefore, that there should arise between the two brothers an affection beyond the ordinary measune of brotherly love. Valentine had supplied the place of both parents to his brother George, — the place of the mother, wlio lay buried in AUanbay churchyard ; the place of the father, who had sunk into a Hving death of drunkenness and profligacy. They were not peasant-bom these Jemams. The father had been a lieutenant in the Eoyal Navy ; but had deservedly lost his commission, and had come, with his devoted wife, to hide his disgrace at AUanbay. The vices which had caused his expulsion from the navy had increased with every year, until the family had sunk to the lowest depths of poverty and degradation, in spite of the wife's heroic efforts to accomplish the reform of a reprobate. She had struggled nobly till the last, and had died broken-hearted, leaving the helpless children to the mercy of a wretch whose nature had become utterly debased and brutalized. Throughout their desolate childhood the brothers had been all in all to each other, and as soon as George was old enough to face the world with his brother, the two boys ran away to sea, and obtained employment on board a small trading vessel. At sea, as on shore, Valentine stood between his younger brother and all hardships. But the rough sailors were kinder than the drunken father had been, and the two lads fared pretty well. Thus began the career of the two Jemams. Through all changes of fortune, tlie brothers had clung to each other. De- spite all differences of character, their love for each other hfui known neither change nor diminution; and to-day, walking ^lone upon this quiet country road, the tears clouded Valentine Jemam's eyes as he remembered how often he had trodden it in the old time with his little brother in his anns. " T shall see his dear face ou the fifth," he thought ; " Go^ bless him ! " Warned tn a Dream. -^-^ The old aunt lived in a cottage near the entrance to thf Tillage. She was comfortably off now — thanks to the two mer- chant captains ; but she had been very poor in the days of their childhood, and had been able to do but little for the neglected lads. She had given them shelter, however, when they had been afiaid to go home to their father, and had shared her humble fare with them very often. Mrs. Jemam, as she was called by her neighbours, in right of her sixty years of age, was sitting by the window when her nephew opened the little garden-gate : but she had opened the door before he could knock, and was standing on the threshold ready to embrace him. "^fv boy," she exclaimed, "I have been looking for von so long!"" That day was given up to pleasant talk between the aunt and nephew. She was so anxious to hear his adventures, and he was so willing to tell them. He sat before the fire smoking, while Susan Jemam' s busy fingers plied her knitting-needles, and re- lating his hair-breadth escapes and perils between the puffs of blue smoke. The captain was regaled with an excellent dinner, and a bottle of wine of his own importation. After dinner, he strolled out into the village, saw his old friends and acquaintances, and talked over old times. Altogether his first day at Allanbay passed very pleasantly. The second day at Allanbay, however, hung heavily on the captain's hands. He had told all his adventures ; he had seen all his old acquaintances. The face of the ballad-singer haunted him perpetually; and he spent the best part of the day leaning over the garden-gate and smoking. Mrs. Jemam was not offended by her nephew's conduct. "Ah! my boy," she said, smiling fondly on her handsome kinsman, "it's fortunate Providence made you a Bailor, for you'd have been ill-fitted for any but a roving life." The third day of "Valentine Jemam' s stay at Allanbay was the second of April, and on that morning his patience was ex- hausted. The face which had made itself a pai-t of his very mind lured him back to London. He was a man who had never ac- cu5^U>med himself to school his impulses; and the impulse that dr-;w him back to London was irresistible. "1 must and will see her once more," he said to himself ; " perhaps, if I see her face again, I shall find out it's only a common face after all, and get the better of this folly. But I must see her. After the fifth, George will be vnth. me, and I shan't be my own master. I must see her before the fifth." Lnpetuous in all things, Valentine Jemam was not slow tc act up^n his resolution. He told his aunt that he had bueinesi liJ Run to Harih. to transact in Loudon. He left Allanbay at ncvn, walked t«!/ Plymouth, took the afternoon coach, and rode into London on the following day. It was one o'clock when Captain Jernam found himself once more in the familiar seafaring quarter; early as it was, the noise of riot and revelry had begun already. The landlord looked up with an expression of considerable surprise as the captain of the " Pizarro " crossed the threshold. " Why, captain," he said, " I thought we weren't to see you till the fifth." " Well, you see, I had some business to do in this neighbour- hood, 80 I changed my mind." " I'm very glad you did," answered Dennis Wayman,_ cor- dially; "you've just come in time to take a snack of dinner %vith me and my missus, so you can sit down, and make yourself at home, without ceremony." The captain was too good-natured to refuse an invitation that seemed proffered in such a hearty spirit. And beyond this, he wanted to hear more about Jenny Milsom, the ballad-singer. So he ate his dinner with Mr. Way man and his wife, and found himself asking all manner of questions about the singing- girl in the course of his hospitable entertainment. He asked if the girl was going to sing at the tavern to-night. "No," answered the landlord; "this is Friday. She only sings at my place on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays." " And what does she do with herself for the rest of the week?" "Ah! that's more than I know; but very hkely her father will look ki here in the course of the afternoon, and he can tell you. I say, though, captain, you seem uncommonly sweet on this girl," added the landlord, with a leer and a wink. " Well, perhaps I am sweet upon her," replied Yalentine Jer- nam ; " perhaps I'm fool enough to be caught by a pretty face, and not wise enough to keep my folly a secret." " I've got a Httle business to see to over in Eotherhithe," said Mr. Wayman, presently ; " you'll see after the bar while I'm gone, Nancy. Tnere's the little private room at your service, cap- tain, and I dare say you can make yourself comfortable there with your pipe and the newspaper. It's ten to one but what Tom Milsom will look in before the day's out, and he'll tell you all about his daughter." Upon this the landlord departed, and Valentine Jernam re- tired to the little den called a private room, where he speedily fell asleep, wearied out by his journey on the previous nigtt. His slumbers were not pleasant. He sat in an uneasy position, upon a hard wooden chair, with his arms folded on the tabl« before him, and his head resting on hia folded arras. Done in the Darkness. 1% There was a miserable pretence of a fire, made with bad coali smd damp wood. Sleeping in that wretched atmosphere, in that nncomfortaV attitude, it was scarcely strange if Valentine Jemam dreamt bad dream. He dreamt that he fell asleep at broad day in his cabin on board the "Pizarro," and that he woke suddenly and found himself in darkness. He dreamt that he groped his way np the companion-way, and on to the deck. There, as below, he found gloom and darkness, and instead of a busy crew, utter loneliness, perfect silence. A stillness hke the stillness of death reigned on the level waters around the motionless ship. The captain shouted, but his voice died away among the shrouds. Presently a glimmer of star-light pierced the universal gloom, and in that uncertain light a shadowy figure came gliding towards him across the ocean — a face shone upon him beneath the radiance of the stars. It was the face of the ballad-singer. The shadow drew nearer to him, with a strange gliding motion. The shadow lifted a white, transparent hand, and pointed. To what ? To a tombstone, which glimmered cold and white throngh the gloom of sky and waters. The starlight shone upon the tombstone, and on it the sleeper read this inscription — " In memory of Valentine Jemam, aged 3o." The sailor awoke suddenly with a cry, and, looking up, saw the man they called Black Milsom sitting on the opposite side of the table, looking at him earnestly. " Well, you are a restless sleeper, captain ! " said this man : ** I dropped in here just now, thinking to find Dennis Wayman, and Pve been looking on while you finished your nap. I never saw a harder sleeper." ** I had a bad dream," answered Jemam, starting to his feeL " A bad dream ! What about, captain P *' " About your daughter ! " CHAPTER n. DONE IN THE DARKNESS. Before Thomas Milsom, otherwise Black Milsom, conld expresi his surprise, the landlord of the " Jolly Tar " returned from his business excursion, and preiented himself in the dingy little room, where it was already beginning to grow dusk. Milsom told Dennis Wayman how he had discovered the cap- tain sleeping uneasily, with his head trpon the table ; and on B 14 Bun to Earili. being pressed a little, Valentine Jernam told his drtam aa freelj as it was his habit to tell everything relating to his own affairs. ' I don't see that it was snch a very bad dream, after all," said Dennis "Wajman, when the story was finished. " You dreamt yon were at sea in a dead calm, that's about the plain Enghsh ofit." "Yes; but such a calm! I've been becalmed many a time; but I never remember anything like what I saw in my dream just now. Then the loneliness ; not a creature onboard besides myself; not a human voice to answer me when I called. And the face — there was something so awful in the face — smiling at me, and yet with a kind of threatening look in the smile ; and the hand pointing to the tombstone ! Do you know that I was thirty-three last December ? " The sailor covered his face with his hands, and sat for some moments in a meditative attitude. Bold and reckless though he was, the superstition of his class had some hold upon him; and this bad dream influenced him, in spite of himself. The landlord was the first to break the silence. " Come, cap- tain," he said ; " this is what I call giving yourself up to the blue devils. You went to sleep in an uncomfortable position, and you had an uncomfortable dream, with no more sense nor reason in it than such dreams generally have. What do you say to a hand at cards, and a drop of something short ? You want cheering up a bit, captain ; that's what you want." Valentine Jernam assented. The cards were brought, and a bowl of punch ordered by the open-handed sailor, who was always ready to invite people te drink at his expense. The men played all-fours ; and what generally happens in this sort of company happened now to Captain Jernam. Ee began by winning, and ended by losing ; and his losses were much heavier than his gains. He had been playing for upwards of an hour, and had drunk several glasses of punch, before his luck changed, and he had occasion to take out the bloated leathern pocket-book, distended unnaturally with notes and gold. But for that rum-punch he might, perhaps, have remembered Joyce Harker's warnincr, and avoided displaying his wealth liefore these two men. Unhappily, however, the fumes of the Btrong liquor had already begun to mount to his brain, and the clerk was completely forgotten. He opened his pocket-Vjok every time he had occasion to pay his losses, and whenever he ©pened it the greedy eyes of Dennis Wayman and Black Milsom devoured the ':onlyents with a furtive gaze. With every hand the sailor grew more excited. He was play- ing for email stakes, and as yet his losses only amounted to a few pounds. But the sense of defeat annoyed him. He waa I)07i6 in the Darkness. IS feverislilj eager for his revenge : and when Milsom roie to gov the captain wanted him to continue t-o play. "You shan't sneak off like that," he said; "I want my revenge, and I must have it." Black Alilsom pointed to a little Dutch clock in a comer of the room. " Past eight o'clock," he paid ; " and I've got a five-mile walk between me and home. My girl, Jenny, will be waiting up for me, and getting anxious about her father." In the excitement of play, and the fever engendered by strong drink, Valentine Jernam had for^rotten the bullad-singer. Bat this mention of her name brought the vision of the beautiful face back to him. " Your daughter ! " he muttered ; " your daughter ! Yes ; the girl who sang here, the beautiful girl who sang." His voice was tliiek, and his accents indistinct. Both the men had pressed Jernam to drink, while they themselves took ver}' little. They had encouraged him to talk as well as to drink, and the appointment with his brother had been spoken of by the captain. In speaking of this intended meeting, Valentine Jernam had spoken also of the good fortune which had attended his latest trading adventures ; and he had said enoui^h to let these men know that he carried the proceeds of his trading upon his person. "Joyce wanted me to bank my money," he said; " but none of your banking rogues for me. My brother George is the only banker I trust, or ever mean to trust." Milsom insisted upon the necessity of his departure, and the Bailor declared that he would have his revenge. They were getting to high words, when Dennis NVayman interfered to keep the peace. " I'll tell you what it is," he said ; " if the captain wants hia revenge, it's only fair that he should have it. Suppose we go down to your place, ]\Iilsr)m ! you can give us a bit of supper, I dare say. What do you say to that 'f " Milsom hesitated in a sheepish kind of manner. "Mine'j sucli a poor place for a gentleman like the captain," he waul. " My daughter Jenny will do her best to make things straight and comfortable ; but still it is alaout the poorest place that ever was — there's no denying that." " I'm no tine gentleman," said the captain, enraptured at the idea of seeing the ballad-singer; " if your daughter will give us & cmst of bread and cheese, I shall be satisfied. We'll take two or three bottles of wine down with us, and we'll be as jolly as princes. Get yonr trap ready, Wayman, and let's be off at •nee." rhe captain was all impatience to start Dennis "Wayraan t tlun to ^ari%. Kent away to get the vehicle ready, and Miisom followed hitd, Dut they did not leave Captain Jernam much time for thought, for Dennis Wayman came back ahnost immediately to say that ^e veliicle Avas ready. "Now, then, look sharp, captain!" he said; "it's a dark night, and we shall have a dark drive." It was a dark night — dark even here in Wapping, darker still on the road by which Valentine Jernam found himself travelling presently. The vehicle which Dennis Wayman drove was a disreputable- looking conveyance — half chaise-cart, half gig — and the pony was a \ncious-looking animal, with a shaggy mane; but he waa a tremendous pony to go, and the dark, mar.shy couDtry Hew past the travellers in the darkness like a landscape in a dream. The ripple of the water, sounding faintly in the stillness, told Valentine Jernam that the river was near at hand ; but beyond this the sailor had little knowledge of his whereabouts. They had soon left London behind. After driving some six or seven miles, and always keeping within sound of the dull plash of the river, the landlord of the " Jolly Tar " drew up suddenly by a dilapidated wooden paling, behind which there was a low-roofed habitation of some kind or other, which was visible only by reason of one faint glimmer of light, flickering athwart a scrap of dingy red curtain. The dull, plashing sound of the river was louder here; and, mingling with that monotonous ripple of the water, there was a shivering sound ^-xne trembling of rushes stirred by the chill night wind. " I'd almost passed your place, Tom." said the hmdlord, as he drew up before the darksome habitation. " You might a'most drive over it on such a night as this,*' answered Black Miisom, "and not be much the wiser." The three men alighted, and Dennis Wayman led the vicious pony to a broken-down shed, which served as stable and coach- house in Mr. Milsom's establishment. Valentime Jernam looked about him. As his eyes grew more familiar with the locality, he was able to make out the outline of the dilapidated dwelling. It was little better than a hovel, and stood on a patch of waste f^ound, which could scarcely have been garden within the memory of man. By one side of the house there was a wide, open ditch, friuged with rushes — a deep, black ditch, that flowed down to the river. " I can't compliment yon on the situation of your cottage, mate," he said ; '* it might be Hvelier " " I dare say it might," answered Black Miisom, rather sulkily, •*Itook to this place because everybody else was afraid to take to it, and it was to be had for nothing. There was an old Done in tJie DarTcness. 17 miser as cut his throat here seven or eight year ago, and the place has been left to go to t'.ecay ever since. The miser's ghost walks about here sometimes, after twelve o'clock at night, folks say. ' Let him walk till he tires himself out,' says I. 'He don't come my way ; and if he did he wouldn't scare ine.' Come, captain." Mr. jlilsom opened the door, and ushered his visitor into the lively abode, which the prejudice of weak-minded people permit- ted him to occupy rent-free. The girl whom Jernam had seen at the Wapping public-house was sitting by the hearth, where a scrap of fire bunit in a rusty grate. She had been sitting in a listless attitude, with her hands lying idle on her lap, and her eyes fixed on the fire; but she looked up as the two men entered. She did not welcome her father's return with any demonstra- tion of affection; she looked at him with a strange, wouderimg gaze; and she looked with an anxious expression from him to his companion. Dennis Wayman came in presently, and as the girl recognized him, a transient look, almost hke horror, fiitted across her face, unseen by the sailor. " Come, Jenny," said Milsom ; " I've brought Wayman and a friend of his down to supper. What can you give us to eat? There's a bit of cold beef in the house, I know, and bread and cheese; the captain here has brou-jht the wine; go we shall do well enough. Look sharp, lass. Ycu're in one of your tempers to-night, I suppose; but you ought to know that don't auswer with me. 1 say, capUiin," added the man, with a laugh, " if ever you're going to marry a pretty woman, make sure she is'nt troubled with an ugly temper; for you'll find, as a rule, that tlie handsomer a woman is the more of the denl there is in her. Now, Jenny, the supper, and no nonsense about it." The girl went into another room, and returned [)re8ently with such fare as Mr. Milsom'sestabhshraent could afford. The sailor's eyes followed her wherever she went, full of compassion and love. He was sure this brutal wretch, Milsom, used her badly, and he rejoiced to think that he had disregarded all Joyce Harker's warn- ings, and penetrated into the scoundrel's home. He rejoiced, for hemeanttorescue this lovely, helpless creature. He knew nothing of her, exce])t that she was beautiful, friendless, lonely, and ill- used ; and he determined to take her away and marry her. He did not perplex himself with any consideration as to whe- ther she would return his love, or be grateful for his devotion. He thought only of her unhappy position, and that he vraa pre- destined to save her. The supper was laid ui>on tl>e rickety dwil table, and tlie throe men sat down. Valentine would have waib^d till his host's 4ftughter \^ seated h§rbe4f ; but she hewi Itiid no plate or kttil'^ 18 Bun to Earth. for herself, and it was evident tliat she was not expected to Bhare the social repast. " You can go to bed now/* said Milsom. " We're in for a jolly night of it, and you'll only be in the way. Where's the ohl man P " "Gone to bed." " So much the better : and the sooner yon follow him will be 10 much the better again. Good night." The girl did not answer him. She looked at him for a few moments with an earnest, inquiiing gaze, which seemed to com- pel him to return her look, as if he had been fascinated by the profound earnestness of those large dark eyes ; and then she went slowly and silently from the room. "Sulky!" muttered Mr. Milsom. " There never was such a girl to sulk." He took up a candle, and followed his daughter from the room. A rickety old staircase led to the uj^per tloor, where there were three or four bed-chambers. The house had beeu originally something more than a cottage, and the rooms and passages were tolerably large. Thomas Milsom found the girl standing at the top of the stairs, as if waiting for some one. " \Vhat are yon standing mooning there for ? " asked the man. ** 'vVhy don't you go to bed.'''' " Why have you brought that sailor here P " inquired the girl, without noticing Milsom's question. " What's that to you ? You'd like to know my busine^^g, wouldn't yon P I've brought him here because he wanted to come. Is that a good answer ? I've brought him here because he has money to lose, and is in the humour to lose it. Is that a Wtler answer ? " " Yes," returned the girl, fixing her eyes upon him with a look of horror; " you will win his money, and, if he is ani^^ry, there will be a quarrel, as there was on that hideous night three years ago, when you brought home the foreign sailor, and what hap- pened to that man will happen to this one. Father," cried the girl, suddenly and passionately, " let this man leave the house in safety. I sometimes think my heart is almost as hard as yours; bi:! this man trusts us. Don't let any harm come to him." " Why, what harm should come to him .' " For some time the girl called Jenny st«H»d l»efore her father in sil'-nce, with her head bent, and her face in shadow ; then she lifU'd herheud suddenly, and looked at him piteously. " The other ! " she murmured; " the other ! I remember what hap[>ened to him." "Tome, -rof. th?t ' " "Tied i\Iilsora, pavagelv; " do yon think I'm ^ aiij^ < stanu ^'-/iir read talkP Get to beu, and go to sleejs. Done in the Dwrlcness. IC And the sounder you sleep the better, unless you want to sleep uncommonly sound for the future, my lady." The ruffian seized his daughter by the arm, and half poshed, half flung her into a room, the door of which stood open. It was the dreary room which she called her own. Milsom shut the door upon her, and locked it with a key which he took from his pocket — a key which locked every door in the house. ^ " And now, I flatter myself, you're safe, my pretty singing- bird," he muttered." He went down stairs, and returned to his guest, who had been pressed to eat and drink by Dennis Wayman, and who had yielded good-naturedly to that gentleman's hospitable attentions. • • # « « Alone in her room, Jenny Milsom opened the window, and sat looking out into the inky darkness of the night, and listening to the voices of the three men in the room below. The voices sounded very distinctly in that dilapidated old house. Every now and then a hearty shout of laughter seemed to shake the crazy rafters; but presently the revellers grew silent. Jenny knew they were busy with the cards. " Yes, yes," she murmured ; " it all happens as it happened that night — first the loud voices and laughter; then thesiience; then — ^Great Heaven ! will the end be hke the end of that night ? " She clasped her hands in silent agony, and sank in a crouch- ing position by the open window, with her head lying on the sill. For hours this wretched girl sat upon the floor in the same atti- tude, with the cold wind blowing in upon her. All seemed tran- quil in the room below. The voices sounded now and then, subdued and cautious, and there were no more outbursts of jovial laughter. A dim, gray streak glimmered faint and low in the east — the first pale flicker of dawn. The girl raised her weary eyes towards that chill gray light. " Oh ! if this night were only ended ! " she murmured : " if it were only ended without harm ! " The words were still upon her lips, when the voices sounded load and harsh from the room below. The girl started to her feet, white and trembling. Louder with every moment grew those angry voices. Then came a struggle ; some article of fur- niture fell with a crash ; there was the sound of shivered glass, and then a dull heavy noise, which echoed through the house, and shook the weather-beaten wooden walls to their foundations. Al'ter the fall there came the sound of one loud groan, and then subdued murmurs, cautious whispers. The window of Jenny Milsom's room looked towards the road 20 Run to Earth, From that window she could see nothinor of the sluggish ditch or the river. She tried the door of her room. It was securely locked, as she had expected to find it. " They would kill me, if I tried to come between them and their victim," she said ; " and I am afraid to die." She crept to her wretched bed, and flung herself down, dressed as she was. She drew the thin patchwork coverlet round her. Ten minutes after she had thrown herself upon the bed, a key turned in the lock, and the door was opened by a stealthy hand. Black Milsom looked into the room. The cold glimmer of day fell full upon the girl's pale face. Her eyes were closed, and her breathing was loud and regular. "Asleep," he whispered to some one outside ; " as safe as a rock." He drew back and closed the door softly. # * « « * Joyce Harker worked his hardest on board the "Pizarro," and the repairs were duly completed by the 4th of April. On the morning of the 5th the vessel was a picture, and Joyce sur veyed her with the pride of a man who feels that he has not worked in vain. He had set his heart upon the brothers celebrating the first day of thefe" re-union on board the trim little craft : and he had made arrangements for the preparation of a dinner which was to be a triumph in its way. Joyce presented himself at the bar of the '* Jolly Tar " at half-past eleven on the appointed morning. He expected that the brothers would be punctual; but he did not expect either of them to appear before the stroke of noon. All was very quiet at the " Jolly Tar " at this hour of the day. The landlord was alone in the bar, reading a paper. He looked up as Joyce entered ; but did not appear to recognize him. " Can I step through into your private room? " asked Joyce; " I expect Captain Jernam and his brother to meet me here ia half an hour." " To be sure you can, mate. There's no one in the private room at this time of day. Jernam — Jernam, did you say ? What Jernam is that ? I don't recollect the name." " You've a short memory," answered Joyce; "you might re- member Captain Jernam of the ' Pizarro ; ' for it isn't above a week since he was here with me. He dined here, and slept here, and left early in the morning, though you were uncommonly pressing for him to stay." " We've so many captains and sailors m and out from year's end to year's end, that I don't remember them by name," said Dennis Wayman ; " but I do remember your friend, mate, 90"W you remind me of him ; ajid X remember you, too," Bone in the Barhtest. 21 " Yes," said Joyce, with a grin ; •* there ain't so many of my pattern. I'll take a glass of rum for the good of the house ; and if yon can lend me a paper, I'll skim the news of the day wliile I'm waiting." Joyce passed into the little room, where Dennis took him the newspaper and the rum. Twelve o'clock struck, and the clerk began to watch and to listen for the opening of the door, or the sound of a footstep in the passage outside. The time seemed very long to him, watch- ing and listening. The minute-hand of the Dutch clock moved slowly on. He turned every now and then towards the dusky corner where the clock hung, to see what progress that slow hand had made upon the discoloured dial. He waited thus for an hour. " AYhat does it mean ? " he thought. "Valentine Jemam so faithfully promised to be punctual. And then he's so fond of his brother. He'd scarcely care to be a minute behindhand, when he has the chance of seeing Captain George." Joyce went into the bar. The landlord was scrutinizing the address of a letter — a foreign letter. " Didn't you say your friend's name was Jemam P ** he asked. "I did." " Then this letter must be for him. It has been lying here for the last two or three days; but I forgot all about it till just this minute." Joyce took the letter. It was addressed to Captain Valentine Jernam, of the " Pizarro," at the " Jolly Tar," care of the land- lord, and it came from the Cape of Good Hope. Joyce recognized George Jernam's writing. "This means a disappointment," he thought, as hetnrned the letter over and over slowly ; " there'll be no meeting yet awhile. Captain George is off to the East Indies on some new venture, I dare say. But what can have become of Captain Valentine ? I'll go down to the ' Golden Cross,' and see it" he's there." He told Dennis Way man where he was going, and left a mes- sage for his captain. From Eatcliff Hiiihway to Charing Cros? was a long journey for Joyce; but he had no idea of indulging in any such luxury as a hackney-coach. It was late in the after- noon when he reached the hotel ; and there he was doomed to en- counter a new disappointment. Captain Jernam had been there on the second of the month, and had never been there since. He had left in the forenoon, after saying that he should return at night ; and in evidence that such had been his intention, the waiter told Joyce that the captain had left a carpet-bag, containing clean linen and a change of clothes. " He's bro^fen his word to ine, and l\e's got into bftd baii^fii,*' 22 Emu to Earth. thought Harker. " He's as simple as a child, and he's got into bad hands. Bnt how and where ? He'd never, surely, go baok tx) the 'Jolly Tar,' after what I said to him. And where else can he have gone ? I know no more where to look for him in tliis great overgrown London than if I was a new-born baby." In his perfect ignorance of his captain's movements, there was only one thing that Joyce Harker could do, and that was to go back to the " Jolly Tar," with a faint hope of finding Valentine Jernam there. It was dusk by the time he got baok to Ratcliff Highway, and the flaring gas-lamps were lighted. The bar of the tavern was crowded, and the tinkling notes of the old piano sounded feebly from the inner room. Dennis Wayman was serving his customers, and Thomas Mil- 8om was drinking at the bar. Joyce pushed his way to tlie landlord. "Have you seen anything of the captain ?" he asked. " No, he hasn't been here since you left." " You're sure of that ? " " Quite sure." " He's not been here to day; but he's been here within the week, hasn't he P He was here on Tuesday, if I'm not misin- formed." "Then you are misinformed," Wayman said, coolly; "for your seafaring friend hasn't darkened my doors since the morn- ing you and he left to go to the coach-office. Joyce could say nothing further. He passed through the passage into the public room, where the so-called concert had begun. Jenny Milsom was singing to the noisy audience. The girl was very pale, and her manner and attitude, as she gat by the piano, were even more listless than usual. Joyce Harker did not stop long in the concert-room. He w*»nt back to the bar. This time there was no one but Milsom and Wayman in the bar, and the two seemed to be talki g earnestly aa Joyc« enterc\i. They left off, and looked up at the sound of the clerk's fo t* tteps, " Tireil of the music already ? " asked Wayman. " I didn't come here to hear music," answered Joyce; "I came to look for my captain. He had an appointment to meet his brother here to-day at twelve o'clock, and it isn't hke him to break it. I'm beginniner to get uneasy about hira." " But why should you be uneasy.^ The captain is big enough, and old enougli, to take care of himself," said the landlord, vriik a laugh. " Yes; but then you see, mate, there are some men who never know how to take care of themselves when they get into bad Done in the Da/rhness. 28 company. There isn't a better sailor than "Valentine Jemam, or a finer fellow at sea ; but I don't think, if you searched from one end of this city to the other, you'd find a greater innocent on shore. I'm afraid of his ha\nng fallen into bad hands, Mr, VVayman, for he had a goodish bit of money about him ; and there's land-sharks as dangerous as those you meet with on the sea." "So there are, mate," answered the landlord; " and there's some queer characters about this neighbourhood, for the matter of that." " I dare say you're right, Mr. Wayman," returned Joyce ; "and I'll tell you what it is. If any harm has come to Valentine Jer- nam, let those that have done the harm look out for themselves. Perhaps they don't know what it is to hurt a man that's got a faithful dog at his heels. Let them hide themselves where they will, and let them be as cunnitio^ as they will, the dog will smell them out, sooner or later, and will tear them to pieces when he finds them. I'm Captain Jernam's dog, Mr. Dennis Wayman; and if I don't find my master, I'll hunt till I do find those that have got him out of the way. I don't know what's amiss with me to-night; but I've got a feeling come over me that I shall never look in Valentine Jernam's honest face again. If I'm right, Lord help the scoundrels who have plotted against him, for it'll be the business of my life to track them down, and bring their crime home to them — and I'll do it." After having said this, slowly and deliberately, with an appalling earnestness of voice and manner, Joyce Harker looked from Dennis Wayman to Black Milsom, and this time the masks they were accustomed to wear did not serve these scoun- drels so well as usual, for in the faces of both there was a look of fear. " I am going to search for my captain," said Joyce. " Good night, mates." He left the tavern. The two men looked at each other earnestly as the door closed upon him. "A dangerous man," said Dennis Wayman. "Bah!" muttered Black Milsom, savagely; " who's afraid of a hunchback's bliist,er ? I dare say he wanted the handling of the money himself" All that night Joyce Harker wandered to and fro amidst the haunts of sailors and merchant captains; but wander whore he would, and inquire of whom he would, he could obtain no tidings of the missing man. Towards daybreak, he took a couple of hours' sleep in a tavern at Shadwell, and with the day his search began again. Throughout that day the same patient search continued, the •ame inc^uiries were repeated with indomitable perseveraace, in 24 Eun to Earth every likely aaid tmlikely place ; but everywhere the result wai failure. It was towards dusk that Joyce Harker turned his back upon a tavern in Rotherhithe, and «et his face towards the river bank. •' I have looked long enough for him among the Uving," he said ; " I must look for him now amongst the dead." _ Before midnight the search was ended. Amongst the ])rinted bills flapping on dreary walls in tliat river-side neigh lx)urhood, Joyce Harker had discovered the description of a man " found drowned." The description fitted Valentine Jernara, and the body ha