inclemency."

The Prince nodded and seemed pleased; then he asked anxiously,

"The Bird? You have been to Jamrach's?"

"Pardon me, Sire," says the man who was waiting to be shaved, "I
can slip from your jesses no mercenary eagle. These limbs have yet
the pith to climb and this heart the daring to venture to the
airiest crag of Monte d'Oro, and I have ravished from his eyrie a
true Corsican eagle to be the omen of our expedition. Wherever
this eagle is your uncle's legions will gather together."

"'Tis well; and the gold?"

"TRUST MONTE CRISTO!" says the bearded man; and then, David, begad!
I knew I had them!

"We meet?"

"At Folkestone pier, 7.45, tidal train."

"I shall be there without fail," says the Prince, and sneaks out of
the street-door just as Poll comes in with the extra soap and
strop.

Well, David, to make it as short as I can, the man of the icy
glance was clean-shaved at last, and the mother who bore him would
not have known him as he looked in the glass when it was done. He
chucked Poll a diamond worth about a million piastres, and,