have been in our family for ages, they were not entailed. A feeling of
honor was the cause of this neglect. They were sold, and the purchaser
was this man Potts. He must have bought them with the money that he had
plundered from me.

"Now, since my eyes have been opened, I have had many thoughts; and
among all that occurs to me none is more prominent than the mysterious
murder of my friend. This man Potts was with him at the time. He was
chief witness against the Malay. The counsel for the defense bore down
hard on him, but he managed to escape, and Uracao was executed. Yet this
much is evident, that Potts was largely benefited by the death of
Despard. He could not have made all his money by his own savings. I
believe that the man who wronged me so foully was fully capable of
murder. So strong is this conviction now that I sometimes have a
superstitious feeling that because I neglected all inquiry into the
death of my friend, therefore he has visited me from that other life,
and punished me, by making the same man the ruin of us both.

"The mine, I now believe, was a colossal sham; and all the money that I
invested in stocks went directly to Potts. Good God! what madness was
mine!

"O my boy! Your mother and your brother are lying here sick; your sister
attends on us all, though little more than a child. Soon I must leave
them; and for those who are destined to live there is a future which I
shudder to contemplate. Come home at once. Come home, whatever you are
doing. Leave all business, and all prospects, and come and save them.
That much you can do. Come, if it is only to take them back with you to
that new land where you live, where they may forget their anguish.