erally of opinion that if the provisions of the New Mining Act, which came into operation on January 1, 1873, be fairly carried out, a material reduction will be effected in the number and nature of accidents under this head; the owner, agent, and manager being now held responsible for the security of the roof and sides of every "travelling road and working-place." Mr. Wales, however, the Inspector for South Wales, fears that so long as the colliers have to fix the timber in their own working-places there will be little or no diminution in the death rate, as the colliers are paid on the ton of coal cut, and not according to the quantity of timber set. And indeed, whatever diminution may by care and watchfulness be effected as regards this class of accidents, anything like entire freedom from them cannot be hoped for. They are the normal perils of the miner's life.

But as respects explosions of fire-damp, the case is far otherwise. The number of persons killed by such explosions last year was, as stated, 154; and it is hardly too much to say that these lives might all have been saved, had only ordinary precautions been used. Because working with a naked light, in disregard of orders, is not always attended with fatal consequences, the miner seems to forget that danger is lurking behind, and perseveres in disobedience; preferring for the sake of obtaining a little more light to run the risk of getting burned, or even killed, rather than to put up with the less amount of light and immunity from danger which the safety-lamp affords. The accidents under this head are one long record of carelessness, wilful disobedience, or bad management; and what adds to the sadness of the matter is that the risk is not confined to the life of the one man who disobeys orders, and who causes the explosion. He jeopardizes the lives of others, and too frequently involves them in his destruction. A sad illustration of this is given by Mr. Wynne. Speaking of a certain case, he says: "The waste or goaf was known to contain gas which every fall of roof forced into the drift in larger or smaller quantities, according to the quantity of roof that fell. There was plenty of air to carry it off, and naked lights were forbidden to be used in that part of the workings; but the man in charge of the drift, thinking he knew better than both manager and underlooker where danger was to be apprehended, used a naked light, and caused the explosion, and only lived long enough to feel the bitter pang of not only causing his own death, but that of five others."

Sometimes the masters are to blame. Mr. Wynne mentions an instance in which an unfortunate man was sent to work with a naked light in a place known to be foul, and spoken of for some days before as dangerous. The man was of course killed; and the case admitting of no explanation, a summons was issued against the owner, who was fined the full penalty of £20. A perfect system of ventilation, and strict discipline to enforce the use of the safetylamp, are what are required to put an end to this class of accidents. A perfect system of ventilation is of course not easy to obtain, but one great point has been gained: the masters have been awakened to a sense of the importance of ventilation. They are now aware that "life is imperilled the moment that fresh wind becomes scarce," and they are bestirring themselves actively to secure such improvement as lies in their power. Ventilating fans are being erected in considerable numbers; in one district alone, where in 1866 there were not more than two mechanical ventilators at work, they have now no fewer than seventeen.

As regards discipline, the Miners' Trades Union might do much good, if their energies were directed that way. It is to be hoped that as time goes on, this will come about; but at present, though the Union is admitted to have been useful in having established a kind of Board of Conciliation, before which questions relating to revision of wages are brought, and which has in a few cases considered matters relating to safety, it has to some extent been subversive of discipline; rules having been laid down forbidding the men to work under certain conditions. Thus, on a sudden emergency, like a fire in a pit, the Union declare that all the men shall be employed alike in extinguishing

66

it, and heavy fines are threatened in cases where men specially suitable for this kind of work, and specially chosen for the purpose, work more than their proportionate number of shifts." Action of this sort, on the part of the Union, is unquestionably mischievous. We must, however, look forward to the spread of education to open the eyes of the men to their true interests, and make clear to them that regulations of this order, while they may be productive of serious loss to proprietors and prejudicial to the safe working of the mines, confer no real benefit on themselves.

Upon the whole, and looking at the matter in an impartial light, we cannot but rejoice that the men whose lives are spent in procuring for us the comforts of light and warmth should be earning wages so much higher than any dreamt of in former generations. The first result of accession to greater riches is nearly always increased expenditure in an unwise direction. If, then, the miners have not always spent their newly acquired wealth wisely, they cannot be harshly blamed for this. That they will not always spend so unwisely we may be quite sure. Already there are dawning signs of a better spirit. The South Yorkshire miners, who voluntarily and rapidly raised amongst themselves a subscription amounting to nearly £3000 for the Plimsoll Defence Fund, showed that they could use their money for generous as well as selfish purposes; but the fact must not be lost sight of that rude work, which coal-mining is, demands rude bodies, and that rude bodies imply rude minds, and if war cannot be made with lavender-water, neither can coal be dug with kid gloves. long as coal-mining is the rough operation it now is, we can hardly expect such intelligence and culture in miners as will guide them to a thoroughly good use of their money. The best hope for such development lies in the universal adoption of machinery for coal-cutting. In process of time, we believe that this must come; how soon it is impossible to predict; but the sooner the better for the welfare of all concerned.

FOREIGN NOTES.

As

THE Saturday Review has a dyspeptic notice of Whittier's poetical works.

GEORGE M. ToWLE is the Boston literary correspondent of the London Athenæum.

THERE are two matters which are greatly exercising Londoners just now - tramways and asphalte.

A LARGE number of manuscripts of Herder have recently been purchased by the Royal Library at Berlin.

THE son of Mr. Charles Dickens is arranging for the stage his father's Christmas story, "The Battle of Life."

GUSTAVE DORÉ has completed the large picture on which he has been engaged for several months. It is called "The Dream of Claudia Procula " (Pilate's wife).

"THERE can be little doubt," says the Pall Mall Gazette," that by far the greater part of the mischief done in the world is done by silly people, and that silliness is as a rule quite as, if not more, dangerous to the community than wickedness, inasmuch as the unreasoning enjoy an immunity from punishment for their offences which is not extended to the unprincipled."

LADY EASTLAKE tells us, in her memoirs of Sir Charles, that one of his great compositions, which she ranks as next to his chef d'ouvre, was either lost or destroyed the picture of Brutus haranguing the mob upon the death of Lucretia. It seems, however, that the work in question is neither lost nor destroyed, but is in the possession of Mr. Eberlé, the Liverpool Francatelli.

LATELY at a sale of autographs in Paris, a letter in Latin, of the Girondin Louvet, the author of "Faublas," fetched 31 fr. It contains, among others, the following passage: "Robespierre fait des discours à son image; tout cela est tiré à quatre épingles; mais après tout, son cousin Damiens lui dirait, il vaut mieux être tiré à quatre épingles qu'à quatre chevaux." Louvet was mistaken in thinking that Damiens, the would-be mur

derer of Louis the Fifteenth, was a relation of the Robespierre family.

THE late eminent French surgeon Nélaton had some fine shooting to which he used to invite his friends. One day a careless sportsman had the misfortune to lodge some shot in the legs of a peasant who crossed his fire just as he was discharging his gun at a hare. Piteous were the fellow's cries as he pointed out his wound to the illustrious surgeon; and while the shot were being extracted he indulged in some rather strong language at the expense of his aggressor. "What do you mean?" at last cried the exasperated sportsman. "You have the conscience to complain when I have procured you the honor of being attended by Nélaton for nothing!"

A PARIS correspondent, speaking of Marshal Bazaine's trial, says: The costs of this enormous trial are said to have exceeded 1,200,000f. ($240,000), and, contrary to the popular belief on this point, the Marshal is not rich. Risen from the ranks, the Marshal was supported in early life by his brother, M. E. Bazaine, the engineer; and from the time he obtained his first commission down to the day of his imprisonment he had nothing but his pay. In 1867 he married a Mexican lady, who was reported to have brought him a fortune of millions; but this was untrue, the match was purely one of affection.

Ir is reported that fourteen young Arabs are about to enter the University of Naples, being sent by the viceroy for the purpose of studying jurisprudence. Had the Pasha sent the young gentleman to Naples to be put through a course of music we should have seen nothing so very remarkable in it, but that he should have sent them there for the purpose of studying law sounds really strange. In no city in the world does it take such a length of time to decide an ordinary cause, and the experience of many suitors prompts them to say with so slight a show of justice.

SIR SAMUEL BAKER, says the Saturday Review, has given the Geographical Society a spirited and stirring narrative of his adventures in Central Africa. It is quite as good in its ways as "Robinson Crusoe," and must have whetted the appetite of the public for his forthcoming book. There can be no doubt that Sir Samuel and his wife have gone through a great many perils, and have displayed remarkable courage and intrepidity; and it was perhaps unavoidable that he should make himself the hero of his story. Egypt, as he announced a few months ago in a Napoleonic dispatch, now extends to the Equator. This appears to mean that Sir S. Baker himself reached this point, and that he desired the people of the countries through which he passed to consider themselves annexed; but it is just possible that his successor, if he should follow in his footsteps, may find it necessary to repeat the process of annexation on his own ac

count.

A MAN of the name of Henri has given some very startling evidence at the Bazaine trial, showing, among other things, the risk and peril to which emissaries were exposed when trying to get in and out of Metz. If the man Henri speaks the truth, he was captured in attempting to force the German lines, and was about to be hanged-in fact the noose was already about his neck-when he solemnly invoked the vengeance of the Lord on his enemies. Prince Frederick Charles, who, like another Tristan l'Hermite, was attending the operation, was struck by Henri's adjuration, and asked him if he were a Catholic. The prisoner replied in the affirmative, and the Prince immediately added that no good Catholic could die without a confession, and the execution was put off till the next day. During the night Henri managed to make his escape, and after many hair-breadth escapes and chucking a Prussian sentry into the Moselle, he got into Metz with a dispatch. The Prince will either be much surprised when he reads the above story, or will regret his toleration, which evidently cost the life of a German sentry-for Henri didn't wait to know whether he was a Lutheran or a Catholic before chucking him into the river.

THE question of the liability of newspapers to criminal prosecution for publishing historical documents such as the Papal Encyclical is again stirred in Germany. Hundreds of press prosecutions (says the Cologne Gazette, speaking of the past generally) have been instituted, and the procedure has been various and altogether without consistency. The state authorities have often tried to make the luckless editor bear the sins of all the world, and the courts in some cases have given judgment in this sense, as when the editor of a Königsberg paper was sentenced to three months' imprisonment for publishing a dispatch of Lord Russell, the English Minister for Foreign Affairs. Usually,

however, the courts have held that journals were not liable to punishment if their comments showed that they printed the offending documents in order to condemn them. But this is a rule which, even if it were uniformly observed, would not always prevent injustice. Not a little odium has been excited against the Prussian Government lately because of the confiscation of Polish and German papers for the publication of the Pope's letter to Archbishop Ledochowski. The Posen Zeitung, commenting on the announcement, is curious to know whether the confiscation is to be followed by a judicial investigation and the condemnation of the editor. That is, of course, quite possible, and would be consistent with the reactionary press legislation. We might then be condemned for communicating the Papal Christmas Allocution; for though subjectively we defended the government, objectively and unintentionally we condemned it. What is to be said of press laws which produce such results? Worse still is the inequality in the treatment of the press. While we and one or two other papers had to endure confiscation, trial, and condemnation, the majority of them escaped scot free. The government itself published in the StaatsAnzeiger the offending letter of the Pope to the Emperor, but neither the government organ nor the papers which followed its example were prosecuted. Thus the same act which was punishable in some cases is in others committed by the government itself. It must be evident to every one who reflects on the matter that such things are not fitted to encourage the press to take part in the struggle against the Ultramontane hierarchy.”

THE price of furs is to many persons almost, if not quite, as important as the price of coals, and a general" strike" of furred animals would produce an amount of misery and inconvenience only to be equalled by a general strike of colliers. Some interesting information with regard to furriery is given by ConsulGeneral Tauchnitz, in his Report on the Leipzig Easter Fair, 1873, and on the fur trade, lately printed. To this last fair, as to former ones, were brought in abundance the produce of Siberia, Russia, Norway, and Sweden, of all Central Europe, of the United States of America, Canada, the Hudson's Bay Territory, Northwest America, Alaska, the Aleutian Isles, and from China. The goods are exported to America, Russia, China, Turkey, to Hungary and the Austrian States, to England, France, and Italy; a considerable quantity also remaining for use in Germany. Mentioning first the productions of Central Europe, there were imported for the last fair in round numbers 120,000 foxes, 200,000 polecats, 50,000 rock martens, 20,000 pine martens, 20,000 badger skins, 6500 otter skins, and 125,000 black cats. Foxes fetched from 16 to 22 thalers, according to quality; on an average, about 18 thalers per ten skins. For polecats but moderate prices were paid, a large stock being of fered they sold for from 60 to 110 thalers per lot of forty skins, according to country. Rock martens reached 6 thalers skin per for German, 74 thalers for Bosnian and Greek goods; pine martens, 6 to 7 thalers per skin. Black cats were sold for 9 to 15 thalers per dozen. Of Russian and Siberian furs were offered 2,000,000 squirrels of all sorts, 160,000 ermine, 30,000 kolinsky, and 8000 Siberian sables; these were sold from 15 to 35 per cent. cheaper than in last year. Of the productions of North America, about 1800 sea otters were quickly bought up by several Russian merchants. About 80,000 beavers (40,000 were reserved for the demand in England) found in general a good sale at former prices. Of 10,000 other skins, on account of the high price, only about the half went off the market. 3000 Virginian polecats were entirely cleared out at high prices. Of 6000 bear skins about a third remained unsold, owing to the mildness of last winter, and the sale of raccoons suffered from the same cause, only half of 220,000 skins being disposed of. 950,000 skunks, considerably cheaper than last year, found a tolerable sale. silver foxes and 3500 cross foxes met with but a moderate demand; 45,000 red foxes, about 5 per cent. cheaper than last year, were caught up by Greek, Russian, and Galician merchants, and all but about 20 per cent. of the store was sold: 3000 gray foxes and 9000 kitt-foxes were about 10 per cent. cheaper; 2,500,000 musk were much sought and well sold, owing to the prospect of a diminished supply in America; 16,000 sables found a quick sale, especially in the better sorts; of 60,000 small otter skins, only about two thirds were sold, owing to the large supply; of the most important European goods are especially mentioned eyed seal skins. This fur is in general favor in England and America, and also in Germany and France, and the whole was sold out, many orders remaining unexecuted. Prepared squirrel backs and squirrel bellies found the usual demand. Colored Persian and Astrachan furs found a good sale at moderate prices. French and Belgian rabbit skins were brought in great quantity, and found a sale at a lowering of about 10 per cent. in price. Dutch swans and geese found a

800

good sale, also polished rabbit-skin goods and marmot lining; the latter 15 per cent. cheaper than last year. As the day seems to be approaching when families will depend more on fur than on fire for warmth during such weather as we are now experiencing, these details of the Leipzig fur frade have especial interest at the present moment, and are calculated to raise vermin in general estimation.

HOME NOTES.

AN English minister tells in an English paper, that while in this country lately he met a conductor on a street car in the neighborhood of Harvard College, who surprised him by asking, in a very intelligent and polite manner, a number of questions about England and its great hospitals. He discovered finally that he was a student in the university, who was working as a conductor during the vacation, at $2.50 a day, so as to earn money to pay his college fees without being dependent upon his step-father. He was to become a physician, and hence his inquiries.

THE theory that the Hoosac Tunnel would be ventilated without the aid of the central shaft is now practically established. Mr. Shanly recently passed through the tunnel, and reports a fine breeze from east to west through the entire length, which, as the week before the current was strong from west to east, fully confirms the belief that nature will attend to the matter of ventilation without any artificial chimneys. There will be a little dripping of water for short distances at several points in the tunnel. The falling water would not injure passing trains any more than a light shower would, but, to prevent injury to the road-bed, there will probably be erected over the wet portions of the route, roofs of galvanized iron to carry the water off to the gutters on the sides of the track.

THERE is a passage in Professor Agassiz's last report as Director of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, which has a mournful interest now, especially as the report, we think, was not issued until after his death. After a generous tribute to the efficiency of his associates at the museum during his absence on the Hassler expedition; he says: There is one inference to be drawn from this statement which is of great importance, though few perhaps can value it as highly as I do myself. I have heard it said repeatedly that the organization of the museum was too comprehensive, that it covered a wider range than was useful in the present state of science among us, and that since it must collapse whenever I should be taken away, it was unwise to support it on so large a scale. The past year has proved beyond question that the museum is now so organized (vitalized as it were with the spirit of thought and connected work) that my presence or absence is of little importance. It will keep on its course without any new or repeated stimulus beyond the necessary appropriations for its maintenance."

Dr.

THE American Bible Revision Committee, in cooperation with the British Committee, have just finished the revision of Genesis and Matthew, and sent it to England. The Committee hold regular monthly sessions in the Bible House, and are making steady progress; but the nature of the work is such that it will require several years of patient and pains-taking toil. Schaff, of the Union Theological Seminary, is the President; Prof. Day of Yale College the Corresponding Secretary; Prof. Short, of Columbia College, the Treasurer of the whole committee. Ex-President Woolsey, of New Haven, is the chairman of the New Testament Company, and Dr. Green of Princeton is chairman of the Old Testament Company. The mode of working, we believe, is for the English committee to send to their American collaborateurs proof sheets of the revision as far as completed and to these as embodying the latest results of English scholarship, the American scholars add their suggestions and criticisms. The sheets are held carefully free from outside examination, as the arrangements of the English committee with the printers require this.

IF Dr. Clarke's book on Sex in Education, which is working like a minie ball in theoretic education, reforms away staircases, it will be one of the most valuable works ever published in America. The Boston Globe, in a summary of the several changes in Boston schools, remarks: "It is probable that, in the construction of school-houses for girls, the plan hereafter will be to arrange the lower rooms of the building for the older scholars and not or the younger, as is the prevalent mode By the existing

arrangements, the older scholars have to climb several flights of stairs to get to their study and recitation rooms — a task which, in many instances, the younger-for reasons which will be inferred are more equal to." It will be a pity if the reform stops at this point. What right has the State or city to inflict the modern curse of lofty, pretentious school-houses on the growing organizations of the young? It is a pernicious system which brings together such swarms of children, and then requires them to climb up and down, it may be four times a day. It is a false economy; if the money expended on our show school-houses had been devoted to a greater number of small buildings, distributed more freely through the city, it would have yielded a better return. A system of small school-houses for the neighborhood, with a rotation of teachers, would be a far more healthy one.

WE hope the energetic Librarian of Congress will induce that body to spend a few minutes in modifying the copyright law so as to simplify the form of entry now printed with each book, chart, map, or engraving. We have improved a little on the bungling formula which used to give such a solemnly official look to our books, but we see no reason why any other form is required than "Entered at the copyright office." It might be expedient to add the year, but as the records are open to any one's inspection, whoever, for purposes of business or curiosity, requires to know more, can readily ascertain it on application to the proper authorities. The present law requires the deposit of two copies of each book entered, in the library at Washingtona wise provision — and under the working of the law the library is rapidly growing. The actual number of books added to it from this source in 1873 was 3147, and this excludes duplicates, which are used, we presume, to effect exchanges with foreign countries, for we cannot find any other reason why two copies are required, and have always thought the exaction from the publishers twice as heavy as it ought to be. A publisher may not mind it much when he secures the copyright of an ephemeral or inexpensive book, but as the law requires two copies of the best edition it becomes a serious matter if he issues a work of very expensive character, which yet he feels bound to protect. We know of a case recently occurring, where the owner had to deposit two copies of a book which he was furnishing to the subscribers at one hundred dollars a copy.

MR. KWAKOWSKI, a Polish sculptor residing in New York, was commissioned some time since by his countrymen in America to execute a statue of Kosciuszko, to be cast in bronze and placed with other worthies in Central Park, New York. He lately exhibited his work at his studio and seems to have given satisfaction. He was fortunate in having for a model the only authentic bust of Kosciuszko; he might have had it at any rate, for there is deposited in the collection of the New York Historical Society a bust in plaster which has a curious history. When living in Paris, after the close of our Revolutionary War and before the rising in Poland, Kosciuszko was much with the brothers Zeltner of Switzerland, one of whom was ambassador at the court, and it was in his home in Solothurn that Kosciuszko passed his last days. M. Zeltner was very anxious to have a likeness of his friend, but Kosciuszko steadily refused to allow any to be made of him. So resorting to stratagem, he hired two adjoining boxes at the theatre, and, occupying one with Kosciuszko, gave the other to a young Swiss sculptor, Eggenschwiler, who made the necessary sketches, his subject being all the while in blissful ignorance. Zeltner instructed Eggenschwiler to make for the present but three busts and to keep the whole affair in the strictest secrecy. Meanwhile, Kosciuszko, who was a connoisseur in the fine arts, had heard of Eggenschwiler as a promising young artist, and asked Zeltner to introduce him. They went together to his studio, and as they entered the sculptor was at work finishing the three busts. He, feeling himself the guilty one, and caught in a trap, nervously fluttered before the innocent busts, all the while receiving his distinguished visitor with such hospitality as he could. His manner betrayed him and Kosciuszko, suddenly discovering the busts, was carried away by his indignation and anger and lifting his cane thwacked the busts, shattering two of them, and was attacking the third, when Eggenschwiler rushed in, caught the blows himself, and begged the third might be spared for Zeltner's sake, and getting a reprieve, gave Kosciuszko time to repent of his hasty revenge. He hesitated, but finally, getting Eggenschwiler's sacred promise never to make another, he turned to Zeltner, who was covered with confusion, and gave this remaining bust to him. It was in Zeltner's house, as we have said, that Kosciuszko died, and Col. Xavier Zeltner, son of his friend, removing to this country with his family, brought this bust, which is still his property, though deposited in the Historical Society's Rooms.

VOL. I.]

ZELDA'S FORTUNE.

BOOK IV. PALMAM QUÆ MERUIT, FERAT

CHAPTER VI. CLAUDIA'S NEW

66

STUDIO.

No, Miss Claudia," said Carol. "That wouldn't do at all, if I know that ungrateful scoundrel the manager. I made myself what I am. Nature meant me for a detective policeman a Vidocq, a Caliph of Bagdad, a Talleyrand. You mustn't go to the police

Aaron's old enough and 'cute enough, I reckon, to be wide awake to them. But he's not old nor 'cute enough, I also reckon, to be wide awake to me. First catch your Aaron that's a pun-then cook him that's putting horse and cart the right way round. It wasn't yesterday I found out that there's a country in England where all sorts of odd things happen that none of you that read your daily paper ever think of, and to get at the bottom of them we mustn't use any of our clumsy machines. We mean to get Aaron into the net of law, but we mustn't bait it with a policeman."

The advice suited Claudia well. The one purpose in life left to her was to obtain justice for Harold Vaughan, and to obtain it moreover by her own effort. Carol's advice was not only sound in itself - he really thought now that he had to think for her but she felt an inward consciousness that the battle would be but half fought unless she kept its conduct in her own hands. Here was a splendid opportunity for being up and doing, when the whole responsibility of obtaining social justice for her lover lay with her.

The sinews of the campaign were the only things needful, and they came unexpectedly and providentially to her eyes, but in reality without any strange coincidence or out-of-the-way cause. Her picture was sold for more than its price to a man whose name she never heard before and never heard again. Such things ought not to be revealed, seeing that she never knew, and does not know now, how Carol slaved and pinched for three long weeks to buy a picture that he did not mean to sell. He made Brandon's life, and the lives of others, a burden to them until he got work and did it; then he bought the view on the Lesse, hid it behind his

SATURDAY, JANUARY 24, 1874.

bed, and spent what remained over in a break-out that kept him away from Claudia for three days, after which he returned with red eyes, but with a mind at ease.

Claudia met him with the good news. "I have sold my picture!" she said. "Am I to thank you?

He blushed, for the only time within the memory of man.

"No, Miss Claudia. I've done most things, but that wasn't me," he said, rejecting for the first time a chance of taking credit to himself for all things, from recommending bell-hangers to the precession of the equinoxes. "By Jove it's a fine day !"

In two days more Claudia had left London and she, too, felt her native country air like a caress of old time, almost the sweeter for its utter sadness. With her extreme frugality she could live in a small St. Bavons lodging for months to come, even if she failed to obtain employment as a drawing mistress; and the orphan daughter of Mr. Brandt could not fail to do that, now that she had buried the last shadow of her pride. It was with the calmest forgetfulness of self that she set about her purpose

her nearest approach

to selfishness being a desire to satisfy her longing to expiate her own unconscious injustice. Harold Vaughan might never be anything to her, but she, like Zelda, only in a widely different way, must be all to him, whether he ever knew it or no. Her plan required a woman's constancy and a man's courage, and it is with honor and thanksgiving that I welcome back my heroine to the front once more.

I am not sure that I can wholly account for what induced her to lay her special plans. Women, as somebody once aptly said, do not go down-stairs step by step, but leap down over the banisters lacking or scorning the steps of logic, they run the risk of a neck-breaking, but thus reach the same end by a swifter means. Besides, Claudia was one of those who believe in unearthly aid, and can take the means upon trust when their hearts assure them of the worthiness of the end. Still her chase was not exactly of the wild-goose order. In the first place, she knew whom she was looking after, while he had never even heard of her: and, with Carol's aid, his motives for committing the murder were tolerably clear.

With these lights, she studied the

[No. 4.

evidence, as it had been reported in the local papers, like a lawyer, and she was intensely struck by two points that became the centre of her further speculations. One was the fact that, as Carol had seen, the chest had been forced open before the blow: the other was the incomprehensibly motiveless act of filling it up with rubbish afterwards. It was inconceivable waste of time rather the act of an idiot than of a sharp fellow like the murderer. Not only so, but there were no traces of similar rubbish about the house; so it must have been brought there with a deliberate design. Where all seemed so dark, she was obliged to be content with the smallest clue she could find, and the same thought occurred to her as to Aaron - that Mrs. Goldrick herself must have used the chest as a blind. She then, as every detective should do, though with many a shudder, put herself in the place of the criminal, and asked herself what she would have done had she committed a murder for the sake of a chest of money in such a place, and had found it filled with bricks and stones. She answered herself by repeating her former idea

that Mrs. Goldrick, fearful of robbery, had removed the gold and had filled it up so that the weight might remain the same; and that the criminal, if as thorough-going as herself, would not rest until he had returned to the empty house and obtained the fruits of his crime when its traces had passed away.

She was more than ever averse to putting the police on his track, for many reasons besides those which had at first led her to follow the advice of Carol. One was that Carol himself would be placed in a most villainous light; another, that with such evidence as she possessed that of Mademoiselle Leczinska being clearly unattainable -a conviction would be improbable, and its failure would recoil upon Harold Vaughan. She gave herself a certain period to watch and wait, in order to give Aaron time to return to the house that she trusted would prove a trap for him. If he could be actually found there, under any circumstances, it would be enough to connect him with the place, and the next link would, no doubt, supply itself. As to Zelda, Claudia thought it needless to trouble herself. Carol was able to explain her presence there, and a woman who was either so cowardly or so in

different as to let an innocent man run the risk of being hanged for want of a word was just as well left out of the question.

Assuming her trap to be baited as she supposed, she had to invent some way of making it self-acting, by showing when the rat had begun to nibble. This was the really hard part of the task, and it was long before the riddle was solved. At length she made up her mind and her plot was one which would have taxed all the resources of even her courage, had her heart any room for a single thought of self or fear. If boldness and recklessness of consequences to one's self is the invincible power it is generally supposed to be in dealing with cowards, she was bound to win.

But what her plan was will be best learned by leaving her who was made up of heart and conscience for him who had been overlooked when nature was serving out these advantages, or disadvantages, whichever they may be. Aaron was by no means an enemy to be despised he had that bad heart and good stomach which are also generally supposed to insure success when they act together, and he, too, had sold himself into bondage to an idea. When a man commits a murder, he commits himself to getting all his benefits, unless he is willing to confess himself not only a scoundrel, but a stupid scoundrel; and if scoundrelism was Aaron's forte, a character for not being done, even by fate, was his foible.

Having transacted his business with the old tinker, without the hope of making a large profit, but simply out of the instinct which leads men like him to take the greatest amount of trouble and to lay the most elaborate plans in order to reach very small ends, Aaron turned his face once more to St. Bavons. He had placed so many wanderings between himself and the city, that he felt confident of baffling pursuit, even if he was not sure of being altogether without the circle of suspicion. He was afraid of Zelda no more-her being in the company of Harold Vaughan would disarm her evidence of all credit, even if she chose to tell her improbable tale. He could now prove her to be a friend of Harold Vaughan and his own enemy, though he was disappointed in learning from the Barengro that her story would lose the discredit attaching to the evidence of a blood relation. Still, it would all do. He pictured to himself how justice would say to her, through his counsel, “Why did you not come forward before, when you were present at the trial? What relation are you to Dr. Vaughan? Have you been in his company ever since he was discharged? Has not the prisoner Goldrick beaten you sometimes when you were living under his care? Have you not been in trouble yourself?" And a dozen other questions that, his forensic experience told him, would

weigh with a jury for him even more than his squinting eyes would tell against him.

On reaching St. Bavons, he put up at a small public-house in the suburbs frequented by hawkers, where he was well known, and the next evening turned the talk of the tap-room obtrusively upon the murder. It was easy, for it was still a favorite topic among those who were more or less professionally interested in the accidents attaching to burglary and housebreaking.

"What I say is," said one customer, "he ought to have swung for it, and so he would have, too, if he hadn't been a swell."

"They didn't play pea and thimble with their wigs when bandy Sam knocked over a constable. He got Botany Bay."

"Fair play's a jewel. I'm an Englishman, I am; if I'm ever in a hole, I'll ask my lawyer what he charges extra for twisting the papers upside down."

"They won't do it for you. You won't find a live earl to pretend to swear against you, and all the time pay the lawyers all round to find out you were justifiable manslaughter."

So these Lady Penroses and Miss Perrots of the thieves' drawing-room discussed things from their own point of view, and not much more wrongly, when Aaron put in his word.

"And what's come of the house? They say it belongs to the big church, I hear I expect they'll lose their rent this many a day."

"I hear say they'll pull it down," said the landlord.

"Pull it down!" exclaimed Aaron, his hair bristling at the thought of Zelda's Fortune falling to the Dean and Chapter of St. Bavons, instead of coming to him. "So they're going to pull it down," he said, recovering himself.

"A good job too. When?" "Hulloa, though - look here, you all!" broke in one of the others. "Here's a go." He read from the back of the St. Bavons paper," Wanted Immediately. A steady man, without incumbrances, to take charge of a house and studio, Number 5, Old Wharf-Side. Liberal Wages and Allowance. Apply in person only. B. C., 14 College Street, St. Bavons." "There's a go for you-who's a steady

man?

he found a young lady, tall, pale, and careworn, dressed in the deepest mourning, and employed with a pencil.

The pencil almost dropped from her hand as she looked at Aaron's slender figure, sallow face, hooked nose, and marvellous eyes. Her bait had taken with even startling swiftness. She had not had to dismiss more than two candidates for service with B. C. She had not had much trouble in sending them away, when they found what house in Old Wharf-Side bore the number 5.

What is your name?" she began. "My name, ma'am? John Smith, my name is groom by trade. I hope I speak to Mrs. B. C."

First trick for Claudia. He had taken a false name.

"Oh, my advertisement. Yes, I am B. C.; that is to say, Miss Brandt, a painter. Good studios are hard to get here, in a good part of the town, out of the noise, and some nonsensical notions about ghosts have let me have that house in Wharf-Side for a song. I say this, because it's fair to tell you, if you are afraid of ghosts, that No. 5 is where "

"I know, my lady. Bless your sweet ladyship's heart alive, I'm no more fearsome of ghosts than of you. I rather like them."

"You're a sensible fellow. You're not married?"

46

No more than that table, ma'am." "But as for steadiness. You'll have sole care of the house, night and day. So I must have a steady man, who won't be at the public-house and will be always about the premises. It won't be a pleasant place, I'm afraid; but I'll make you as comfortable as 1 can. You have a character from where you were as groom?"

"That's it, ma'am. I don't say I'd take the place if I could get a nicer sort of one. To tell the truth, I'm a poor fellow that's been up and down the country this six year, doing odd jobs when the rheumatics wasn't on. It's as much for the charity I come for as the wages, and you'll know I am as steady as a parson's cob when I say I've not touched a drop since I was born."

"That sounds well. I'll give you s trial. I shan't live at the house altogether, but I shall sleep there sometimes, and work there for some hours in the morning. You will have to do the house-work, answer the door, and see that all's safe, and anything else I may order. I'll engage you by the week at first, for fear we shouldn't agree. I'll give you let me seefifteen shillings every Saturday, and you must find your own food. The . furniture for three rooms - goes in

on Friday. You can go in on the same day, I suppose?"

"I'm ready, ma'am—this minute, if you please.'

"On Friday, then. Good morning." Her undertaking had restored all her energies, and she felt a glow of