What sums of money he is spending on that scheme! He has an engineer and staff at work. He will begin everything before he gets the Bill. How many of those shares does Hogan hold now?"

"Ah! he is well into the boat," grinned Stier: "everything. Leadmines (very soon we must sell that venture); Honduras Bonds; Transcontinental. He is clever-that young man. I do wish I knew Saltasche's scheme; he has one, I know." And Mr. Stier went off to the Stock Exchange.

Mr. Saltasche, we may be sure, did not take his good friends into his counsels altogether. It would have been highly prejudicial to his interests to do so just now; for he meditated nothing less than carrying off the funds of a couple of the companies which they had started with his co-operation. He was head and chief in reality; and having purchased an immense number of shares, and induced a great many people of his acquaintance to do the same, he found no hindrance offered to his lodging the money in Bank in his own name. There was nothing out of the common in that. Stier and Bruen might look dubious;

but he knew very well their anxiety was to surprise his plan and try to share the profits. They would be very clever if they surprised this plan.

Poignarde and his wife were in lodgings for a few days. They had selected a dingy street in Soho. Saltasche lent the Captain some money, and the exchange was in process of being effected. In ten days at the furthest he was to sail from Falmouth. Mrs. Poignarde was to accompany him thither, and then betake herself to Southampton and the Isle of Wight, where a widow lady had offered her a situation as companion. Such was the plan arranged for the ill-starred pair. Mrs. Bursford, who had it at first hand from Saltasche, wrote about it to his sister and Mrs. Grey. People asked but few questions indeed about the Poignardes. Mrs. Grey was in her heart rather relieved that they had sunk below her horizon. Few people knew them, and fewer still cared for them. So the meagre account of their final arrangements was allowed to pass unnoticed. Miss Stroude was angry and offended at their having neglected to inform her of their intended departure. She, too, felt relieved to

think they had disappeared for good, and was disinclined to give herself any trouble about them. Her feelings altogether resolved themselves into an indistinct sensation of thanksgiving, and hope that the ne'er-do-well couple might never turn up again.

ein alter Eidechs.

CHAPTER IX.

"Nichts in der Welt will rückwärts gehen,' sagte mir 'Alles strebt vorwärts, und am Ende wird ein grosses Naturavancement statt finden.' ”—Heine, "Reisebilder."

BETWEEN three and four, one scorching afternoon in the last week of June, Hogan, walking at a rate that seemed almost suicidal in such weather, turned the corner of Cole Alley, and abruptly plunged into the office of his friends Stier and Bruen. There was a cane chair unoccupied in the window, which had been left open to admit such air as might be going; and Hogan threw himself upon it. Mr. Stier, who was standing with his back to the chimney-piece, his hands stuffed far down in his pockets, turned half round and just looked at the new comer. The worthy Hamburger's face expressed the most intense perplexity; his spectacles were pushed up high off his

forehead, and the white-eyelashed eyes blinked in bewilderment.

"Well, Mr. Hogan, you have no news, I see. Ah!"

"None. Lord Brayhead believed Mr. Saltasche in Dublin. I have seen his friend Mrs. Bursford, too. They know nothing. His sister is the only person who could tell us, I daresay."

"Ah! His clerk knows nothing-not even where to forward letters or telegrams. Bruen! Bruen! I say."

Mr. Bruen murmured something, and finished directing a letter which he was engaged on. That done, he left his desk, and advanced to the front of the office.

Bruen," said the senior partner, "it is likely that Miss Saltasche could tell us something."

"It would be well," said Hogan, "for some one to see Miss Saltasche. A personal interview would be advisable, would it not? You must settle, too, about the City article in the Beacon. It was very lame yesterday and the day before."

This was accompanied by a look which