down on you to have left you out in the cold--without even THAT show in
the game. For what you will do in warnin' the other fellows, don't you
see, will just waken up the clan. It's better than a campaign circular."

"Don't be too sure of that," said the consul, with a half-hysterical
laugh. "But we won't consider so lamentable a contingency. Come and
dine with me, both of you, and we'll discuss the only thing worth
discussing,--your LEGAL rights,--and you can tell me your whole story,
which, by the way, I haven't heard."

"Sorry, Jack, but it can't be done," said Custer, with his first
approach to seriousness of manner. "You see, we'd made up our mind not
to come here again after this first call. We ain't goin' to compromise
you."

"I am the best judge of that," returned the consul dryly. Then suddenly
changing his manner, he grasped Custer's hands with both his own. "Come,
Harry," he said earnestly; "I will not believe that this is not a joke,
but I beg of you to promise me one thing,--do not move a step further in
this matter without legal counsel. I will give you a letter to a legal
friend of mine--a man of affairs, a man of the world, and a Scot as
typical, perhaps, as any you have mentioned. State your LEGAL case
to him--only that; but his opinion will show you also, if I am not
mistaken, the folly of your depending upon any sectional or historical
sentiment in this matter."

Without waiting for a reply, he sat down and hastily wrote a few lines
to a friendly local magnate. When he had handed the note to Custer, the
latter looked at the address, and showed it to his young companion.