What did it mean? After all he
had broken his vow, then! Had he not sworn to touch nothing until
he had found his little girl and his fortune? yet the fire of
spirits was in his veins and the craving was tearing him to pieces.
Then he remembered! There was no fortune, no little girl! His
dreams were all shattered, the last effort of his life had been in
vain. He caught hold of the tumbler with fingers that shook as
though an ague were upon him, lifted it to his lips and drank.
Then there came the old blankness, and he saw nothing but what
seemed to him the face of a satyr - dark and evil - mocking him
through the shadows which had surely fallen now for ever. Da Souza
lifted him up and conveyed him carefully to a four-wheel cab.
* * * * *
An hour afterwards Da Souza, with a grin of content upon his
unshapely mouth, exchanged his frock coat for a gaudy smoking-jacket,
and, with a freshly-lit cigar in his mouth, took up the letters
which had arrived by the evening post. Seeing amongst them one with
an African stamp he tore it open hastily, and read: -
"MY DEAR HIRAM, - You was in luck now or never, if you really want
to stop that half -witted creature from doing mischief in London.
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