is, fattens on the Miseries and the Ruin of the Weak and Despoiled!'

Spoken like a man !' exclaimed his old friend, warmly embracing him; and mark my words, the end is not far off!

Just then Japhet Numscul, a former client of Goodheart's, walked into his office. He had been introduced to him by Cheetly Thymecerving Catzpore, had got into his debt over a Speculative account, and now refused to pay his 'differences.' After informing Goodheart that he intended to dispute his right to carry over his account without written instructions from him to do so, he dared him to do his worst. Goodheart at once declined to have another word with Japhet, who left the office with an injured air.

'This man owes me a thousand pounds which I have paid the jobbers; and because the markets all went the wrong way he thinks to leave me in the lurch,' said Goodheart. 'Believing him to be a gentleman I required no "cover," and now he raises a point which in a Law Court would in all probability be decided against me, so much do Juries and the Bench fight against Speculation on the Vortex. Yet he owes me the money. Ah, I am sick of it all! Had the account gone the other way, he would have claimed his "differences" fast enough. These are some of the evil results!'

9

'Mark my words, the end is not far off!' reiterated his old friend. "So Friar's "hammered," exclaimed Markham. 'Members made him pay or deliver, I hear.'

'What's it all about?' inquired Fullheart, who, having been absent from town, had not heard the news.

'Only some fracas,' replied Markham, 'in consequence of Mukfellin's exposé-fellows came down on him like a shotmoney wanted-several thous-and game's up!'

'Mukfellin will follow, they say,' observed Goodheart. 'Why, he put Friar on his legs!'

And was off his own only a few months ago!

'These jack-in-the-box men are a source of wonderment to my simple mind,' pursued Goodheart.

I am far from being an apologist of Friar's,' remarked Fullheart; but surely a little consideration might have been extended to one of their own number by members of an Institution whose fundamental bond is SECRECY !'

'You refer to the et tu quoque argument, probably?' rejoined Goodheart.

"That view has its weight, though not in this case,' observed Fullheart. 'A sense, however, of delicacy-'

'Delicacy!' laughed Goodheart; 'my good fellow, sauve qui peut on the Vortex!'

'I know, I know,' warmly replied the old man; but Friar fell by reason of "outside" attacks. Other members were bound to see him through existing arrangements, though not to enter into fresh obligations. Coûte qui coûte, he should have been let down easy. It was not a panic-time, and there was therefore no

excuse for such conduct.'

*

CHAPTER XXIV.

'Ye gods, annihilate but space and time,
And make two lovers happy.'-POPB.

It lay upon my Spectral chamber table,
Smaller than many a watch, and moved

By fickle atmospheres. Its fragile indicator

Pointed ever downwards. The night was of the thickest.
Would to the God of Heaven it had cleared!

But direful tempest fell. Heaven's thunder

Was abroad. And Geraldine- -!

*

*

*

*

*

As I was watching Ralph Osborne and Haini strolling up and down the beach in front of Grimmouth cave, Hugh Nairn came up and said to Ralph in a nervous, hurried kind of way, Now, sir, Trebraith says there's not a moment to be lost.'

Retiring immediately he had uttered these words, Ralph said passionately, 'Haini, do let me go-it's quite right, I know.'

'Dear Ralph, be guided by me,' said the true-hearted girl, 'these men will do much better without you; and consider, too sudden a shock to her might-' The remainder of the sentence died away upon her lips.

Trebraith says the tide is very uncertain to-night, sir,' again interposed Hugh, advancing impatiently towards them.

'I shall not go,' said Ralph quietly, turning towards Hugh. 'I'll come and give you a hand at launching that pinnace though,' he continued, with a look of tremulous anxiety.

'And I too!' said Haini.

'No, you go under shelter, dear Haini,' said the boy; 'see how it pours!'

The Fernland native requires no shelter!' exclaimed Haini, with flashing eyes. She put her arm around his neck and wept;

they were both silent.

The sea was now running high, and a thick mist was scudding over it, looking black and grim. Wild birds screeched around, darting into the cave and startling the seals. They took no notice of me, however, and I did not want them to.

All seemed ready, down to Billy's sharpening the great sheathknife he wore. This man was now devoted to the cause of 'the prittie flooer;' his heart was no longer honeycombed, but was fast growing up into healthy flesh and blood. The Soldier-gipsy looked calm and resolute, his stalwart followers quiet and determined. The B.D. V. was busy. Though Backaway' had not prospered him, something had been agreeing with him. He looked as little like a Murderer as Somers. I overheard him mutter, Ah, trying it on with "Fleasaway," eh? they sha'n't!' For a moment his eye gleamed fiercely; in the next he was loading pistols with steady earnestness. The mouth of the cave was darkened with a large thick screen, to keep the light from being

seen at sea.

'Can Lord Alfred's steamer stand this wind, Trebraith? I heard Hugh ask.

'Er dras tu much woater, er du,' said Billy.

'You're sure this is the night?'

Iss-iss, et es,' replied Billy emphatically.

'The Retribution will never come on such a night?' said Hugh incredulously.

Jack Spriggles ses the Voiper wull,' returned the other.

I flitted out and saw a dark-looking object approaching the shore. Lights were hung about the rigging. The Viper's Captain was drunk, and was singing with wild and frightful energy snatches of sea-songs, mingled with blasphemous oaths, the refrain to each being, 'We'll a-a-all g-gdown 'gthr, boys!' which heroic sentiment did not meet with that hearty approval of the majority of the cut throats which he had invited.

On my return Jack Spriggles, who had just arrived, was exciting much interest among the gipsies. He had combed out his grizzly locks, and turned his enormous moustache back over his ears till, entwining with his hair, it escaped through a rent in his sailor's hat, looking like a bundle of cock's feathers in damp mourning. Amid general approval he said gaily, 'Us'll mak it warm wuk for some on 'em, I knows.' And he looked prepared

to do his share.

Amid the wild roar of the elements I heard Ralph trying to address the men. 'My dear friends, I grieve I cannot accompany you'

A burst of thunder drowned his voice.

The Viper, now

quite close, showed clearly, as vivid flashes of lightning revealed her to their eager gaze, and showed the glory of the scene. The sparkling waters foamed around her, while the bursting of the tumultuous billows, as they ground the defiant rocks, echoed amongst the frowning cliffs, drowning his voice completely. He began again, the now continuous flashes imparting a heavenly lustre to his excited features. There was a perfect blaze of light. As he gazed upon the scene it served to increase the raging tumults of his soul.

'Tis not without a sigh I say Farewell! My tears-my prayers go with you! You are going, I know, to retrieve the honour of my own flesh and blood! Help! help!' he cried to Heaven; 'my men, strike home!-spare not. I vow a deadly vengeance against this crawling reptile. Earn this, my soul's most fervent gratitude, and She-and you-and I—are one-for evermore!'

He shook hands with one and all, saying, 'Strike home!' to each, and sank upon the rocks, the noble half-caste girl whispering sweet words of comfort in his ear. Swift moments flew. They walked along, and as they moved unevenly together upon a carpet of seaweed and white foam several inches deep, her form and his now touching, and then an inch or two apart, only to meet again, I saw the rich colour mantling in her cheeks, as the lightning flashed again, and a soft, bewitching tremor playing around those lustrous eyes. He pictured her as once they were alone together on Middletown's broad quay. Ah, then how distant she was! And when he thought of all her wonderful devotion, he asked, 'Who am I that she should thus surround me with her lovenow, now, too? pure, noble-hearted girl! And how she loves dear Birdie for my sake! I despise myself!'

Ralph! get behind that reef-you there-I here. I fear dear Maude can never come in time. Oh, what a beauty!' exclaimed Haini, as Ralph handed her a dagger.

'Two beauties in one !' replied the boy as she concealed it in her bosom.

CHAPTER XXV.

"Tis you that say it, not I. You do the deeds,
And your ungodly deeds find me the words.'

SOPHOCLES (MILTON'S Translation).

I CONFESS to a fondness for the old city of Undone. In all my wanderings throughout Space all sights had fallen far short of its bewildering absorbing grandeur. It had a peculiar fascination for me. Had I not been a calm, though not unmoved, spectator of dark and heart-rending scenes within its timehonoured old walls-dim presages perhaps of more momentous events shortly to follow in their train? Still, what harm had it done to me personally? True, I never shall forget that sob; but then those sweetest of pretty lips might not always be sorrowful ones. As I had found its Society so I had taken its Society, and although I will not say too much as to the virtue of all its citizens-for I never flatter-I nevertheless felt unaccountably drawn to it at times. Besides, I had received orders, and they must be obeyed.

Memory carries me back with fatal accuracy to one night. As I looked around the precincts of a spot which has long since become historic, and which had then engulfed all the hopes of the great Monetary and Financial Firm of Grab Brothers, in Money-street, thoughts of a most engrossing character occupied my mind. How could it have been, I asked myself, that simultaneously with the tragic termination of his career in the Ghost's Walk of the Ancient Court of Old Trememdon Castle that December morning, the Arch-Spoiler's Vortex should have sprung up and the Banking-house of Grab Brothers have disappeared? The flames were now roaring and flaunting in the faces of the terrified bystanders. I therefore determined to descend at once and discover the cause of this unusual phe

nomenon.

I had wandered about for some time, when all at once I caught sight of a man reclining upon a huge baulk of sulphur in a cavern connecting the two Arch-Spoilers' Vortices. He seemed perturbed and depressed in mind. As he calmly surveyed the dimly-lighted scene, coughing at intervals as the sulphurous smoke oppressed him, and then drinking slowly from an earthen goblet, which he filled occasionally from a cauldron of boiling pitch at his side, thus hoping to clear his