of abstraction, slipped it into his waistcoat pocket.

"I don't want to be rude, therefore I will not contradict you," he
answered with a kind of groan, "or, indeed, say anything except that
if any one else had spun me that yarn I should have told him he was
a common liar. But, of course, as every schoolboy knows, Walda
Nagasta--that is, Child of Kings in Ethiopic--is much the same as
Bath-Melachim--that is, Daughter of Kings in Hebrew."

Here Captain Orme burst out laughing, and remarked, "It is easy to see
why you are not altogether popular in the antiquarian world, Higgs. Your
methods of controversy are those of a savage with a stone axe."

"If you only open your mouth to show your ignorance, Oliver, you had
better keep it shut. The men who carried stone axes had advanced far
beyond the state of savagery. But I suggest that you had better
give Doctor Adams a chance of telling his story, after which you can
criticize."

"Perhaps Captain Orme does not wish to be bored with it," I said,
whereon he answered at once:

"On the contrary, I should like to hear it very much--that is, if you
are willing to confide in me as well as in Higgs."

I reflected a moment, since, to tell the truth, for sundry reasons, my
intention had been to trust no one except the Professor, whom I knew to
be as faithful as he is rough. Yet some instinct prompted me to make
an exception in favour of this Captain Orme. I liked the man; there was
something about those brown eyes of his that appealed to me. Also it