terms to answer it. You have already bled me so often the same way,
that I have grown heartily sick of the process. This must be the
last time of asking, my boy; I wish you clearly to understand that.
This place has cost me a great deal of money of late, and I cannot
spring you more than a hundred. For that amount I enclose you a
cheque. Finis coronat opus. Bear those words in mind, and believe
me when I say that you have had your last cheque

"From your affectionate cousin,
"BARNSTAKE."

"Consummate little prig!" murmured Captain Ducie to himself as he
refolded the letter and put it away. "I can fancy the smirk on his face
as he penned that precious effusion, and how, when he had finished it,
he would trot off to his clothes-prop of a wife and ask her whether she
did not think it at once amusing and severe. That letter shall cost your
lordship fifty guineas, I don't allow people to write to me in that
style with impunity."

He lighted another cigar frowningly. "I wonder if I was ever so really
hard up as I am now?" he continued to himself. "I don't think I ever was
quite. I have been in Queer Street many a time, but I've always found a
friend round the corner, or have pulled myself through by the skin of
the teeth somehow. But this time I see no lift in the cloud. My
insolvency has become chronic; it is attacking the very citadel of life.
I have not a single uncle or aunt to fall back upon. The poor creatures
are all dead and buried, and their money all spent. Well!--Outlaw is an
ugly word, but it is one that I shall have to learn how to spell before
long. I shall have to leave my country for my country's good."