ignored the hoped-for pleasure of another meeting, and trusted that it
might fall to his lot to visit Australia some day. Thereupon the
bookmaker insisted on the aide-de-camp accepting the cigar-case, and gave
him his visiting-card. The aide-de-camp lost nothing by his good-humoured
acceptance, if he smoked, because, as I knew, the cigars were very good
indeed. Bookmakers, gamblers and Jews are good judges of tobacco. And
the governor's party lost nothing in dignity because, as the traps
wheeled away, they gave a polite little cheer for Mrs. Falchion. I, at
first, was fearful how Belle Treherne would regard the gaucheries of the
bookmaker, but I saw that he was rather an object of interest to her than
otherwise; for he was certainly amusing.

As we drove through Aden, a Somauli lad ran from the door of a house, and
handed up a letter to the driver of my trap. It bore my name, and was
handed over to me. I recognised the handwriting. It was that of Boyd
Madras. He had come ashore by Hungerford's aid in the night. The letter
simply gave an address in England that would always find him, and stated
that he intended to take another name.




CHAPTER IX

"THE PROGRESS OF THE SUNS"

News of the event had preceded us to the 'Fulvia', and, as we scrambled out
on the ship's stairs, cheers greeted us. Glancing up, I saw Hungerford,
among others, leaning over the side, and looking at Mrs. Falchion in a
curious cogitating fashion, not unusual to him. The look was non-