Page:In old madras.djvu/23

Rh the alertness of a mental gymnast, his active and well-trained brain was already weaving schemes, and like a character in ancient melodrama he promptly decided to "dissemble."

"By Jove! so your Uncle is actually alive, and in India! I am completely bowled out—what an amazing thing!" As he tenderly refolded the frail letter he added: "Bazaar paper, and bazaar ink. I say! if you hunt him down, you forfeit four thousand a year, eh? It's rather a wild enterprise!"

"It would be if my Uncle were alive, but I believe this travelling criminal is the man who has made away with him."

"So you are determined to run your head against a brick wall—obstinacy is a family trait."

"If you call my father's last wish a brick wall, I am here to deal with it," and he sat back, as if to study the effect of his announcement.

"Oh, well, well, poor fellow," mumbled Colonel Tallboys, "no doubt he was in a weak state."

"Bodily, yes; but his mind was stronger than it had been for a long time. He had a vivid dream about his brother." Geoffrey paused and coloured, noticing his listener’s expression of amused, but tolerant, disdain. "I say! you are not laughing, are you?"

"No, my dear boy—go on, go on."

"He said he saw him beckoning to him with one hand, whilst he held the other over his eyes—it was always the same dream—he dreamt it many times, and he felt, when he was helpless and dying, that he had made a mistake in not setting this letter aside, and coming straight out here; but, you see, he was in love with my mother, and there was the money, and other things, and so he stayed at home; but the affair preyed on his conscience more and more every, year; till at last it became an obsession. Latterly, he could talk of nothing else; he said he was a miserable coward, who had deserted his only brother, and that my mother's death was his punishment; he worked himself up