AT THE BAR.

BY THE AUTHOR OF "A CRUISE UPON WHEELS," &C. &C.

CHAPTER XXX. THE SCENT IMPROVES.

IT becomes necessary now that the reader
should be informed how that hasty note, which
was mentioned in the last chapter, came to be
written. And in order to this, he must consent
to follow once more for a brief space the
fortunes of Mr. Julius Lethwaite and his faithful
follower and ally, Jonathan Goodrich. These
two made all possible despatch on the road to
Cornelius Vampi's place of abode. There was,
indeed, every reason for haste. It was the night
before the trial. Whatever had to be done,
must be done promptly. Then there was the
stimulant of hope to urge them on and keep them
from flagging. There really did seem now to be
reasonable ground for hope—hope that this
terrible mystery might be at last cleared up. That
discovery of the bottle had altered everything.
To Julius Lethwaite, too, the mere fact of being
employed in an attempt to serve his friends at
such a crisis was a source of high gratification, and
would have been so even if the prospect had been
less encouraging than it now undoubtedly was.

For all the hurry of the moment, our friend
did not neglect so fine an opportunity of analysing
motive. " Ah," he thought to himself, as he
and the old clerk hurried along the streets now
somewhat deserted, " some people would think
that I was acting out of pure philanthropy and
love of my friends. I know better. It is the
love of excitement, to begin with, and the
desire of having a finger in the pie, that are
urging me on. Nothing else, I am convinced.
Excitement! why, it's like hunting down game
to be on a track like this, and following out the
scent as we are doing now. Half the actions
that are called good in this world might be traced
to those two motives—love of excitement, and
the desire to have a finger in the pie."

Jonathan Goodrich was in his turn occupied,
as his master was, with his own reflections. He
was no friend to the art mystic, and he had vague
doubts as to the propriety of having anything to
do with one so devoted to its culture as Cornelius
Vampi. As a soothsayer, he had no belief
in Vampi at all. He looked upon his studies of
the heavenly bodies, and his habitual endeavours
to gain from them an insight into the remote
future, with feelings that oscillated between
contempt and horror. It was either a total mistake
from beginning to end, or else, if there was
anything in it, it was a practising of the occult arts,
a tampering with witchcraft and necromancy,
and, as such, an abomination in the eyes of all
persons of well-regulated mind.

Lethwaite, who always gave the old man an
opportunity of expressing his opinion, and,
indeed, had a great value for it, invited him—now
that he had finally settled that question of the
motive by which he himself was at this time
influenced—to say what he thought of the step
they were now taking.

"Well, sir," replied the old fellow, always
pleased to hold forth a little, " I've no opinion,
as you're well aware, of Mr. Vampi's
fortune-telling and predicting, and that sort of thing,
because, in the first place, according to what you
yourself have told me, for once that he's been
right, he's been at least twenty times wrong,
and because, in the second place, if he could
foretell the future, it must be by some hocus pocus,
which it doesn't become me to speak of, and
which would be much better left alone. At the
same time, setting all these pretensions on one
side, and regarding him as a man with a right to
an opinion like any one else, I've nothing to say
against him; and if you think, sir, that his
opinion in this case might be worth having, and
might help in any way to bring this poor lady
out of trouble, why all I say, sir, is, in Heaven's
name let's have it."

Mr. Lethwaite was, no doubt, highly edified
with this oracular utterance; but he made no
remark, and Jonathan went on.

"At the same time, there is one suggestion
which I would venture to make, if you'll allow
me, and that is, that you'll say nothing to Mr.
Vampi about this discovery which we've just
made, nor give him any hint or clue to go by.
I think, sir, according to my poor judgment, that
it will be best not to tell him anything till he's
just told us what he knows, and that it would be
better that you should approach the subject in
some roundabout way; and then, if what he says
corresponds with what we know, it will be altogether
more satisfactory to all parties afterwards."

Lethwaite reflected a little on what the old man
had said, and agreed to act upon his advice. This
colloquy brought them to the philosopher's door.

Cornelius Vampi was up-stairs in his laboratory