Year: 1879

up his ind to wait ten minutes beyond the completion of the two hours, and no more; and as the hand of the coffee=roomfclock slow ly approached the point, he felt glad to think how little chance there was of the shabby Captains appearance. The hand catered the last five minutes; MT. Burton laid down his, paper with asigh of relief but as he did So, the door creaked, the greasy hat, followed by the somewhat soddened visage of the Captain was thrust in; glance round the room show ed that MT. $ Burton was there and shuttle az the door behind hlm as carefully and cautious ly as though he were Guy Hawkes., or a nlelo-A dramatic bandit, he approached the eX-cofoniali merchant almost on tiptoe. 7.5 .a- K sd It was not difficult to see that the, Captain had been drinking little more possibly a good deal inore for he was well seasoned in that respect; for, even if his bleared eyes had not told as much, his husky voice would have been sufficient. Exceedingly impressive was, or was meant to be, his hoarse whisper, as he said 'All right! MT. Burton. Pm agoing to clear off old debts now for am a man who never forgets benefit or looses sight of friend Come out for moment He wrung Mir. Burton's hand as he spoke with warmth which the latter could very well have excused, and then led the way from the room he had but just so carefully entered.

 The court in which the tavern was situated had one or two blind hooks in it, leading mo- where; and the Captain drawing Mir. Burton into one of these, glanced warily aronnd, and then dropping his voice to still more impres- sive whisper0quite audible however, for his breath came hot on the side of his hearers face-said: "You are in with the Gulf of Carpentaria and Northern Australia Bank arc you not ?" |"

 atI am, returned Burton, who shuddered at the question, in spite of his contempt for the speaker.

 ''Tnen get out, if you can p hoarsely con- tinued the other. "They are blown on.. They will be up in tree in two days from this. Don't ask me any more; but if owe you any trif1e of money, ] have paid you now. Ob- serve! They. Are. Blown" He pro- nounced these last three words as we have giv- en them, as if each word were sentence, and he accompanied them with three distinct taps of his forefnger upon hls reddened nose And with that he hurried off, leaving Mir. Burton at once astonished and alarmed. s...ug

 He understood enough of the Captains hab- it's to know that his associates were of very crafty and dangerous class; that, like other birds of prey, they had the keenest possible scent for moribund carcass, and that if there really were anything wrong with the Gulf-as the bank was familiarly termed-or any other bank, such men would be the first to know of

  tery to us as it was to MT. Burton. But some how they contrive to make money out of the wreck and ruin. In vain he tried to pooh-pooh the half-intelIgible utterances of the Captain; and as he slowly retraced his steps to the ter minus, tried to persuade himself that he had been listening but to the senseless maundering of three parts drunken man. And yet, the Captain was not senseless-B Burton felt that. Intoxicated or partly so he might be: and it was rare that he was seen entirely sober but there was meaning in his husky voice, and warning even in the unsteady glance of his eye, which efectually prevented MT. Burton from despising his mysterious hints.

 On his arrival at his house he, very sensibly, told his wife all that had occurred; and she, who very we'll remembered the disreputable but crafty old Captain in by-gone years, was fully as much alarmed as her husband But what was to be done It was very well to ad- init that there was danger ahead but how were they to avert it Judging from what they had already seen, the papers of the next day might contain the news of the total col lapse of the trusted bank, and four -fifths of all that Burton owned in the world might in an instant be swept away. His investment, it must be remembered, was in the chief office, in the Australian continent and he could not withdraw it in London, excepting after de- lay which of course would be utterly fatal, if any disaster really did threaten the bank

 But Burton was a man of decision and ener- gy otherwise this tale would not have been written and after a disturbed and almost sleepless night, he rose with a settled resolu- tion in his mind. He rose early, and after show of eating his breakfast, left for London

 in such good time that he was there by 8 o'clock. His first proceeding was to obtain shipping-list. By this he found that the mail left for Australia that evening, and that pri- vate steamer left the docks that very morning within three hours-also for Australia His mind was at once made up. It is true that the time was excessively short for what he proposed to do; but he was not in a mood to be daunted by little. A telegram told his wife of his intended departure had partly prepared her for this before leaving. He then hurried to his London bank and drew out nearly the whole of his balance, and while do- ing this he heard some muttered conversation among the strangers waiting at the counter; which proved that others beside himself sus. pected the .soundness of the Gulf bank. In few minutes time he had paid for his passage by the Cerberus, aud was pleased 10 hear the clerk who took his money say-although he knew we'll enough it was a mere matter of course-that she was remarkably fast vessel, splendid sea-Doat, and sure to beat the mail by at the very least-the clerk was emphatic on this point-at the very least from a week to ten days To an old colonist, half an hour in an outfitter's was quite enough to supply him with all he required and, when shortly before noon he stepped upon the gangway lead ing to the Cerberus, no one would have suppos- ed that three or four hours before he had not dreamed of the existence of such vessel.

 The Captain of the Cerberus- splen- did sea-boat had her steam up and her decks ala nf r6i hxyf fl, NJ Burton arrived-was rather surprised at this unexpected accession to his list of passengers, which by the way, was but scanty one, the immediate sailing of the mail-boat effectually, checking anything hke plethora. There was something in the manner of the w-comer, however, which impressed the skipper, and he inwardly decided that he should be very friendly with the latest arrival, In coming to this conclusion he was truer prophet than he at all suspected ...... ... .4.

 The mail herself could not have been more punctual in starting then was the Cerberus The. noonday sun was shining brilliantly on a beautifully calm and tranquil day in Spring when she cast loose her moorings; her great engines began to beat and throb and in five minutes more her few passengers were gazing over her stern at the receding quay which they had just left, and the faces of those who still stood there, waving their caps and handker- chefs, were indistinct and blurred. All that day and all that night she made steady way; the next morning dawned brilliantly, the good ship was we'll into the English Channel and on the day following, the great Atlantic would be fairly beneath her keel. MT. Burton felt as Ee sat at breakfast that his voyage had begun auspiciously; but the next instant came the damping thought that the mail-boat had also started under favorable auspices, and he re- membered, too, that let her auspices be favor able or not, she was bound under penalty to make the voyage in fixed number of days. He was sufficiently versed in nautical matters, to know that although they were making very fair progress, they were by no means doing their utmost, nor indeed was it likely that they would press on with any extraordinary energy as there was no need for the vessel to arrive by any given day at the Gulf Although this might have been said of the ship and her pas sengers generally, it by no means applied to MT. Burton, who keeping his eye on the Cap tain, when for the first time he saw the latter entered his little sanctum on the deck, boldly followed him. The Captain turned with a con, hat .s- .txy . scy.- a,t