with invincible cheerfulness; but they seldom culminated more seriously
than in the disbursement of a few dollars by the consul to enable the
rightful owner of millions to procure a steerage passage back to his
previous democratic retirement. There had been others, less sincere but
more pretentious in quality, to whom, however, a letter to the Heralds'
College in London was all sufficient, and who, on payment of various
fees and emoluments, were enabled to stagger back to New York or Boston
with certain unclaimed and forgotten luggage which a more gallant
ancestor had scorned to bring with him into the new life, or had thrown
aside in his undue haste to make them citizens of the republic. Still,
all this had grown monotonous and wearisome, and was disappointing
as coming through the intervention of an old friend who ought to know
better.

"Of course you have already had legal opinion on the subject over
there," said the consul, with a sigh, "but here, you know, you ought
first to get some professional advice from those acquainted with Scotch
procedure. But perhaps you have that too."

"No," said Custer cheerfully. "Why, it ain't only two months ago that
I first saw Malcolm. Tumbled over him on his own farm jest out of
MacCorkleville, Kentucky, where he and his fathers before him had been
livin' nigh a hundred years--yes, A HUNDRED YEARS, by Jove! ever since
they first emigrated to the country. Had a talk over it; saw an old
Bible about as big and as used up as that,"--lifting the well-worn
consular Bible,--"with dates in it, and heard the whole story. And here
we are."

"And you have consulted no lawyer?" gasped the consul.