"And after all," said I, "of the best turn I
ever did you, you have never heard in your life,
and what is more, might never hear, if not from
myself. Do you remember an altercation on
the road to Feldkirch, with a man called
Rigges?"

"To be sure I do; he smashed the small-bone
of this arm for me; but I gave worse than I
got. They never could find that bullet I sent
into his side, and he died of it at Palermo. But
what share in this did you bear?"

"Not the worst nor the best; but I was
imprisoned for a twelvemonth in your place."

"Imprisoned for me?"

"Yes; they assumed that I was Harpar, and
as I took no steps to undeceive them, there I
remained till they seemed to have forgotten all
about me."

Harpar questioned me closely and keenly as
to the reasons that prompted this act of mine—
an act all the more remarkable, as, to use his
own words, "We were men who had no friendship
for each other, actually strangers;" and,
added he, significantly, "the sort of fellows
who, somehow, do not usually 'hit it off'
together. You, a man of leisure, with your own
dreamy mode of life; I, a hard worker, who
could not enjoy idleness; and in this sense, far
more likely to hold each other cheaply than
otherwise."

I attempted to account for this piece of devotion
as best I might, but not very successfully,
since I was only endeavouring to explain what I
really did not well understand myself. Nor
could a vague desire to do something generous,
merely because it was generous, satisfy the
practical intelligence of him who heard me.

"Well," said he, at last, "all that machinery
you have described is so new and strange to me,
I can tell nothing as to how it ought to work;
but I'm as grateful to you as a man can be for
a service which he could not have rendered
himself, nor has the slightest notion of what could
have prompted you to do. Now, let me hear
by what chance you came here?"

"You must listen to a long story to learn
that," said I; and as he declared that he had
nothing more pressing to do with his time, I
began, almost as I have begun with my reader.
On my first mention of Crofton, he asked me to
repeat the name; and when I spoke of meeting
Miss Herbert at the Milford station, he
slightly moved his chair, as if to avoid the
strong light from the window; but from that
moment till I finished, he never interrupted me
by a word, nor interposed a question.

"And it was she gave you that old seal-ring
I see on your finger?" said he, at last.

"Yes," said I. " How came you to guess
that?"

"Because I gave it to her the day she was
sixteen! I am her father."

I drew a long breath, and could only clutch
his arm with astonishment, without being able
to speak.

"It's all well known in England, now. Everybody
has been paid in full, my creditors have
met in a body, and signed a request to me to
come back and recommence business. They
have done more; they have bought up the lease
of the Foundry, and sent it out to me. Ay, and
old Elkanah's mortgage, too, is redeemed, and I
don't owe a shilling."

"You must have worked hard to accomplish
all this?"

"Pretty hard, no doubt. You remember
those little boats with the holes in 'em at Lindau.
They did the business for me. I was fool enough
at that time to imagine that you had got a clue
to my discovery, and were after me to pick up
all the details. I ought to have known better!
It was easy enough to see that you could have
no head for anything with a 'tough bone' in it!
Light, thoughtless creatures of your kind are
never dangerous anywhere!"

I was not quite sure whether I was expected
to return thanks for this speech in my favour,
and therefore only made some very unintelligible
mutterings.

"There's only one liner now to be raised, and
all the guns are already out of her, but I can
return to-morrow. I am free; my contract is
completed; and the Ignatief sloop-of-war is at
my orders at Balaclava to convey me to any
port I please in Europe."

He said this so boastfully and so vaingloriously,
that I really felt Potts in his humility
was not the smaller man of the two. Nor,
perhaps, was my irritation the less at seeing how
little surprise our singular meeting had caused
him, and how much he regarded all I had done
in his behalf as being ordinary and commonplace
services. But, perhaps, the coup de grace
of my misery came as he said:

"Though I forwarded that ten-pound note
you lent me to Rome, perhaps you'll like
to have it now. If you need any more, say
so."

My heart was in my mouth, and I felt that
I'd have died of starvation rather than accept
the humblest benefit at his hands.

"Very well," said he to my refusal; "all the
better that you've no need of cash, for, to tell
the truth, Potts, you're not much of a doctor,
nor are you very remarkable as a man of genius;
and it is a kind thing of Providence when such
fellows as you are born with even a 'pewter
spoon' in their mouths."

I nearly choked, but I said nothing.

"If you'd like me to land you anywhere in
the Levant, or down towards the Spanish coast,
only tell me."

"No, nothing of the kind. I'm going north;
I'm going to Moscow, to Tobolsk: I'm going
to Persia and Astracan," said I, in wildest
confusion.

Well, I can give you a capital travelling
cloak—it's one of those buntas they make in
the Banat, and you'll need it, for they have
fearfully severe cold in those countries."

With this, and not waiting my resolute refusal,
he rose, hobbled out of the room, and I—ay,
there's no concealing it—burst out a crying!

Weak and sick as I was, I procured an