happy memory.

"How do I know it?" he asked by way of preface. "If you'll listen for a
moment, I'll tell you. If you want more proof, when I've done, you must
be difficult to please. When I was up at Moulmein six months ago, I
came across a man I hadn't met for several years. He was a Frenchman,
who I knew had spent the most of his life away back in Burmah. He was
very flush of money at the time, and kept throwing out hints, when we
were alone, of a place he knew of where there was the biggest fortune on
earth, to be had for the mere picking up and carrying away. He had
brought away as much of it as he could, but he hadn't time to get it
all, before he was chased out by the Chinese, who, he said, were strong
in the neighbourhood."

Kitwater stopped and rubbed his hands with a chuckle. Decidedly the
recollection was a pleasant one.

"Well," he continued, "to make a long story short, I took advantage of
my opportunity, and got his secret out of him by ... well never mind how
I managed it. It is sufficient that I got it. And the consequence is I
know all that is to be known."

"That's all very well, but what became of the Frenchman? How do you know
that he isn't back there again filling his pockets?"

"I don't think he is," Kitwater replied slowly. "It put me to a lot of
inconvenience, and came just at the time when I was most anxious to
leave. Besides it might have meant trouble." He paused for a moment. "As
a matter of fact they brought it in 'suicide during temporary insanity,
brought on by excessive drinking,' and that got me over the difficulty.