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THE THREAfi OF Um As for Elsie, she sped all unconscious on her way to Calais, comfortably ensconced in her first-class compartment “ pour danes seules," of which she had fortunately the sole monopoly. The rain beat hard against the windows, to be sure ; and the wind shook the door with its gusts more than once, or made the feeble oil lamp in the roof of the carriage flicker fitfully; but Elsie, absorbed in deeper afl'sirs, hardly thought of it at all in her own mind till she reached the stretch of open coast that abuts on the mouth of the Somme near Abbeville. There, the fact began at last to force itself upon her languid attention that the Channel cross- ing would he distinctly rough. Still, even then, she hardly realized its full meaning, for the wind was off shore along the Picardv coast ; and it was not till the train drew up with a dash on the quay at Ualais that she fully understood the serious gravity of the situation. The waves were breaking fierce- ly over the mouth of the harbour, and the sea was rising so high outside that passen- gers were met with stern resolve at the ter- minus wsll by the curt notice : As the night wore on, however, the wind rose steadily, till it touched at last; the full dignity of a regular tempest. Warren Rolf couldn't sleep in his: bed for distress. He rose often, and looked out on the gusty sweet for cold comfort. The gas was flaring and flickering in the lampa ;!he wlnd was sweep- ing fiercely down the Coors-la Rhlns ; and the few belated souls who still kept the pave ment were cowering and running before the beating rain with heads bent: down and cloaks and overcoats wrapped tight: around them, it must indeed he an awful night on the English Channel; Warren stood aghast to think to himself how awful. What on earth could ever have possessed him, he wondered now, to let Elsie make her way alone, on such a terrible evening use this, without. him by her side across the stormy Water I He would receive a telegram, thank Heaven, first thing in the morning. Till they. his guapenge wou1_i lie really pginful. At‘qu‘ia Wan-on Rolf I.er with Ellie. He ran be: safely to the K'urtharn Rulwny Station, put. her into the first night-train {0.1 Calais, and linen wriqaled hack himself to his temporary er, a. quiet hotel on the Contra lA~Reiue, j at beuind the PAIAla do l’hdusbrie. Ho mm buck to bed, but not: to sleep It was a gusty night‘ that night in Paris. The wind ah'mk and rattled the loose panes in the big French window: that opened on to the balcony. Ic mutt be blowing great guns across the North Sol. now, he fell: only too sure, and forcing whole squadrons of angry wnves through the narrow Iunnel of the Straits of Dover. BAP TFR XLVI.â€"TBE TURN (I THE Tum “ Owing to'the rough weather prevailing to-nighr, the Dover boat will no: nail till mqmies-f' So Elsie went perforce to an hotel in the town and waited patiently for the sea. to calm itself. But she, too, got no sleep ; she :aydawake all night, and thought of Wini- re . Away at Monte Carlo, no wind blew. Hugh Messinger went to rest there at his case at the H ocel de Paris, and slap}: his sleep out with perfect complacency. o qualms of conscience, no thoughts of Winifred, dis turbed his slumber. He had taken the pre- caution to doubly lock,and bolt his door and to lay his winnings between the bolster and the mattress ; so he had nothing to trouble about. He hadialso been careful to purchase a good six-chambered revolver at one of the numerous shops that line the Casino gardens. It isn't safe, indeed, at Monte Carlo, they say, for a successful player, recognised as such, to go about with too much money as hard cash actually in his possession. Raf- falevsky, in fact, had told him, with most unnecessary details, some very unpleasant stories, before he retired to rest, about rob~ beries committed at Monte Carlo upon the helpless bodies of heavy winners. Raffllev- sky was clearly in a savage ill~ten1per that evening a; having dropped a few thousand pounds at the tablesâ€"strange, that men should permit themselves to be so deeply affected by mere transient trifling monetary reversesâ€"and he took it out by repeating or inventing truculent tales, evidently intended to poison the calm rest of Hugh Massinger’s innocent slumbers. There was that ugly anecdote, ‘for example, about the lucky bomevardier in the high financial line who Won three hundred thousand francs at a couple of sit- tingsâ€"and was murdered in a first~class carriage on his way back to Nice by an unknown assailant, never again romgnized or brought tojnstice. There was that al- arming incident of the fat Lyons silkmerch- ant with the cast in his eye who deposited his gains. like a prudent bourgeois that he was, with a. banker at Monaco, but was. nevertheless set upon by an organised band 1 of three well-dressed but ill-informed rufiians, who positively searched him from head to foot, stripped him, and then threw him out upon the four-foot way, a helpless mass, in the Mont Boron Tunnel, happy to escape with bare life and a broken leg from the merciless clutches of the gang of miscreants. And there was that dramatic incident of the Nevada heiress who, coming to Monte Carlo with the gold of California visibly bulging her capacious pockets, had to fight for her life in her own bedroom at this very hotel, and defend her property fsonln unholy hands by the summary proceSs nevertheless set upon by an organised band of three well-dressed but ill-informed ruffians, who positively searched him from head to foot, stripped him, and then threw him out upon the four~foot way, a helpless mass, in the Mont Boron Tunnel, happy to escape with bare life and a broken leg from the merciless clutches of the gun of miscreants. And there was that dramatic incident of the Nevada heiress who, coming to Monte Carlo with the gold of California visibly bulging her capacious pockets, had to fight for her life in her own bedroom at this very hotel, and defend her property from unholy hands by the summary process of shooting down with her own domestic revolver two of her cowardly midnight visitors. She was complimented by the authorities on her gallant defence, and re- plied with splrit that, for the matter of that, this sort of thing was really no novelty to her ; for she’d shot down more than one importunate suitor for her hand and heart already in Nevada. Then Rafi'alevsky had grown more lugu- brious in his converse still, and descended to tales of the recurrent suicides that diversify the monotony of the Monegasque world. He estimated that twelve persons at least per an- nnm, ona moderate average, blew their brains out in the Casino and grounds, after risking and losing their last napoleon at the roulette tables. To kill yourselfin the actual saloons themselves, he admitted with a sigh, was indeed considered by gentlemanly players as a boorish solecism 2 persons of breeding intent on an exit from this vale of tears. usually retired for the purpose of shooting themselves to aremote and sequestered spot in the Cas- ino gardens, behind a convenient clump ofpic. What followed next, followed so fast that even the sturdy Whitestrauders themselves, accustomed as they were to heavy seas and shifting sands and natural changes of mar- vellous rapidity, stood aghast at its sudden- ness and its awful energy. In a few minutes, before their very eyes, the sea had carried g huge masses and shoals of flying sand over the top of the wall and the stranded ship, and lodged them deep in the hollow below that the scour had created in the rear of the breakwater. The wall was joined as if by some sudden stroke of a conjurer’s wand to the mainland beyond; and the sea, still dashing madly against the masonry and the ship, set to work once more to erect fresh outworks in front against its own assaults by piling up sand with incredible speed in dunes and mounds upon their outer faces. Even as they looked, the breakwater was rapidly lost to view in a mountain of beach: the broken stump of mast on the wrecked collier hardly showed above the level of the mush- room hillock that covered and overwhelmed with its hasty debris the buried hull of the unknown vessel. Hammock after hummock grew apace outside with startling rapidity in successive lines along the shore to sea- ward. Naw land was forming at each crash of the waves. The .‘Eolian sand was dorng its work bravely. By five in the morning. men walked secure where the sea had roar. ed but six hours before. It had left the buried breakwater now a quarter of a mile inland at least, and was still engaged with mud eagerness in its rapid task of piling up fresh mounds and heaps in endless rows, to seaward and to seaWard and ever to sea- ward. .1 r""" of shooting down with her own domestic revolver two of her cowardly midnight visitors. She was complimented by the authorities on her gallant defence, and re- plied with spirit that, for the matter of that, this sort of thing was really no novelty to her; for she’d shot down more than one importunste suitor for her hand and heart alrjady in Nevada. > SUNSHINE AND SHADE. tureeque date pilms. This spot was known tu habitual frequenters of Monte Carlo as the Place Hari-kiri, or Happy Drapatch Point. But if, by hazard, any inconsiderate person was moved to shoot himself in the miles dejeu, a rapid contingent of trained lackeya stood over at hand ready to rush in M & momenv’a notice to drag away the of- fender’s body or wipe up the mess ; and play proceeded at once the same as usual. By midnight, tide was well at its full, end the beach being covered, the bombard- ment of sand slowly intermitted a little- But sheets of foam and spray still drove on before the Wind, and fishermen, clsd in waterproof suits from head to foot, stood facing them upon the shore to watch the fate of Hugh Msssinger’s poor helpless breakwater. The sea was roaring and rav- ing round its sides now like a horde of sev- ages, and the scout was setting in fiercer than ever to wash away whatever remained of Whitestrand. “ Will it stand. Bill 2” the farm bailiff am Nevertheless, Hugh slept soundly in splte of it all in his bed ml morning, and when he woke, found his goodly pile of gold and notes intact as ever between bolstur and mattress. He had never slept; so well since he went to Whiteetrand. “ Will it stand. Bill 2” the farm bailiff asked in anxious tones of Stannaway, the innkeeper, as they atrainad their eyes through the gloom and spray to catch sight of the frail barrier that alone protected them â€"the stone breakwater which had taken the place of the old histgricnl Whitestrand poplar. u‘. Stannawayahook his head despron-dentlv. “ Sea like that‘s bound to Wash it; away," he answered hard through the teeth of the wind. “ It’d wash away anything. An when it goes, it’s all up with Whitesn-and.” The whole village, indeed, men, women and children alike, had collected by this time at the point by the river, to wnteh the progress of the common enemy. There was a fearful interest for every one of them in seeing the waves asseil and beat down that final barrier of theirhearths and homes. If the breakwater went, Whitestrand must surely follow it, now or later, bit by bit, in piecemeal destruction. The sea. would swal- low it up wholesale, as it swallowed up Dunwich and Thorpe and Slaughden. Those domestic exemples gwe point to their terror. To the Sutfolk coast dwellers, the sea indeed envisages itself ever, not mere natural ex- panse of water, but as a slow and patient yet implacable esneilant. By two in the morning a fresh excitement supervened to keep up the interest : a eollier hull,deserted and waterlogged, came drifting in by slow stages before the driving gale across the broad sand flats. She wants die masted hulk, rickety and unseaworthy, abandoned by all who had tried to sail her ; and she drifted slowly, slowly, Ilowlv on, driven before the waves, foot by foot, a bit at a time, over the wet sands, till at last, with one supreme eEortof force, the breakers cast her up, a huge burden, between the shore and the breakwater, blocking with her broadside one entire end of the channel created by the scour behind the spot once occupied by the famous poplar. The waves, in fact, dashed her full against the further and of the breakwater, and jammed her up with prodigious force between shore and wall, a temporary barrier against their own advances. Tnen retiring for a moment to recruit their rage, they broke in sheets of helpless foam against the wooden bulwark they had raised themselves in the direct line of their own progress. Whitestrand was saved. Nay more than that : it was gaining once more in a. Iinglo mgh‘: all that it had 1055 in twenty years to the devouring ooesnr When morning broke, the antoniehnd Whitestremlera could hardly recognise their own shore, their own salt marshes, their own rirer. Everything was changed as if by magic. The estuary was gone, and in its plece stretched a wide expanse of un- dulating eandbills. The Cher had turned it! course visibly southward, bursting the dikes on the Yonderream farms, and flowing to the sea by the old channel from which Oliver's engineers had long since diverted it. The Hell stood half a mile farther from the water's edge than it had done of old, and a belt of bare and open dune-land lay tossed between its grounds and the new high-tide mark. The farm-bailiff examined them in the gray dawn with a practical eve. “ If we plant them hills 31‘ over with merem- grass and temnrisk," he said reflectively, “ they'll mat like the other ones, and Squire'll have as many acres of new pasture land north o‘Cher as ever he lost o'sel marsh and meedow south of the old river. 1f Hugh Musssinqer had only known it indeed. the storm and the strange chances of tempest had done far more for him tint single night while he slept at Monte Culo than luck at roulette had mannged N do for him the day before in that hot and crowded sink of iniquity in the rooms of the Casino. For from that day forth White-trend was safe. It was more than safe; it began to grow again. The blown send ceased to molest it: the sea and the tide ceased to eat it away: the breakwater had done its work well, after all ; and a new barrier of increasing sandhiils had sprung up I on- taneouely by the river’s mouth to guar its eeawnrd half from future encroachment. If Hugh could only have known and believed it. the estate was worth every bit as much thet wild morning as ever it had been in the palmiest days of the Elizabethan Meyeeye. And the family solicitor. examining the mortgages in hie own office, remarked to himself with a pensive vlanoe that the Squire might have raised that little sum, if only he’d waited, at scarcely more than half the interest, on his own security and his improved property. For Whitest:er now would fetah money. At Monte (7er0, on the other hand, day dawned serene and calm and oloudless. Hugh Massinger rose, unmindlul of his far- away Suffolk sandhills, and gazed with a pleasant dreamy feeling out of his luxurious first‘floor bedroom. It was a strange out- look. On one side, the ornate and over- loaded Parisian architecture of that palace of Circe, plumped down so grotesquely, with its merctriclous town-bred airs and graces, among the rugged scenery (i the Maritime Alps: on the other side, the in- accessible crngs and pinnacles of the Tate-de- Chieu, gra and lonely as any mountain side in Scot and or Savoyâ€"the actual ter~ minus of the main range of snow-clad Alps. ‘whose bald peaks topple over sheer three thousand feet into the blue expanse of the Mediterranean, that washes the bias of their precipitous blufi‘s. The contrast was almost ludicrous in its quaint extremes. He did not Wholly approve the desecra- tion. Hugh Masoinger’s tastes were not all distorted. Dissipation to him was but a small part and fraction of existence. He took it only as the mustard of lifeâ€" an agreeable condiment to be sparingly par~ taken of.â€"The poet’s instinct within him had kept alive and fresh his healthy interest in simpler things, in hill and dale. in calm and peaceful country pleasures. After that feverish day of gambling at Monte Carlo, he would dearly have loved to rise early and saunter out alone for a morning walk ; to scale before breakfast the ramping clifl's oi the Tete de Chien, and to reach the mould- ering Roman tower of Turbia, that long mounted guard on the narrow path where Gaul and Italy marched together. But that hateful pile of gold and nones between the illow and the mattress restrained his esire. It would be dangerous to wander among the lonely mountains with so large a sum as that concealed about his person ; dangerous to leave it un- guarded at the hotel, or to entrust it to the keeping of any oaual stranger. “ Cantabit vacuus corem lstrone viater,” he murmured to himself half aloud with a sigh of regret, as he turned away his eyes from that glori- ous semicircle of jagged peaks that bounded his horizon. He must stop at home and take care of his money-bags, like any vulgar cheesemongering millionaire of them all. Down, poet’s heart, with your unreasonable aspirations for the lonely mountain heights 1 ‘ Amaryllls and asphodel are not for you.l Shoulder your muckrake with a manful smile, and betake you to the Casino where Circe calls, as soon as the great gate swings once more on its grating hinges. You can not serve two masters. You have chosen Mammon to-day, and him you must worship. No mountain air for your lungs this morn- ing ; but the close and crowded atmosphere of the roulette tables. Keep true to your creed for a little while longer ; it is all for Elsie’s sake lâ€"For Elsie! For Elsie lâ€"He withdrew his head from the window with a faint flush of shame. Ah, heaven, to think he should ‘think of Elsie in such a connection and at l such a moment i He dressed himself slowly and wenl: down to breakfast. Attentive waiters, expectant of a duly commemorate tip, sniffing pour- boire from afar, crowded round for the honour of his distinguished orders. Refle- levsky joined him in the sullen-manger shortly. The Russian was haggard and pale from sleeplessness: dark rings surrounded his glassy black eyes : his face was the face of a boiled codfish. No waiter hurried to receive his commands: all Monte Jarlo knew him well already for a heavy loser. Your loser seldom overflows into generous tipping. Hugh beckoned him over to his own table : he would extend to the Russian the easy favour of his profuse hospitality. Rsfl'slevsky sented himself in e sulky hum- our by the winner's side. He meant to play it out still. he said, to the bitter end. He couldn’t sfi'erd to lose and leave 03'; that me was for capi- talists. For himsel , he speculatedâ€" wellâ€"on borrowed funds. He must win all back or lose all utterly. In the lat- ter caseâ€"3 significant gasture'completed the sentence. He put up his hand playfully to his right ear and clicked with his tongue, like the click of a revolver barrel. Hugh smiled responsive his most meaning smile. " Esperons toujours," he murmured philo- sophically in his musical voice and perfect accent. No man on earth could ever hear CHAPTER XLVII.â€"FORTUNE or WAR. with more philosophical composure than Hugh Massinger the misfortunes of others. Before he lo“: the breakfast-table that morning, a waiter presented the bill, all daferentfal politeness. “I sleep here to night again,” Hugh observed with a yawn, as he noted attentively the lordly concep- tion of its various items. The waiter bowed a profound bow. “ At Monte Carlo, Mon- talent,” he said significantly, “one pays daily.’ Hugh draw out a. handful of gold from his pocket with a laugh and paid at once. But the omen disqnioted him. Who wins today may lose tomorrow. Clearly the hotel at least had thoroughly learnt that simple lesson. They filed in among the first at the doors of the Casino. Once started, Hugh played With scarcely an intermission for food, till the tables closed again. He kept himself; up with champagne and sandwiches. That was indeed a glorious day l A wild success attended his hazards. He staked and won staked and lost; staked and won;staked and lost again. But the winnings by far outbalanced the losses. It went the round of the tables, in frequent whispers, than a young Englishman, a post by feature, was breaking the bank with his audacious plung~ ine. He plunged again, and again success- fully. People crowded up from their own game at neighbourin boards to watch and imitate the too luc y Englishman. Give him his head ! He’s in the vein l" they said. “A man in the vein should always keep laying." The young lady with the fine gonnsylvauian twang remarked with oooid- ental plainness of speech that she “wouldn’t object to runnin a partnership." Hugh laughed and emurred.-â€"-“You might dilute the luck, you know,” he answered good-humouredly. “But if you'll hand me over a hundred louis, I don’t mind puttin them on 31 for you." He did, an they won. The crowd of gamblers applauded. all hushedI with their usual superstitious awe and veneration. “ He has the run of the numbers,” they said in con- cert. To amblers generally, fate is a god- dess, a livmg reality, with capricious likes and dislikes of her own. They are ever ready to back her favorite for the time being; they look upon play as a predestined certainty. Rxfl'alevsky meanwhile lost and lost with ‘ equal persistence. He drank as much cham- . Fsgne as Hugh; but the wins inspired no‘ uoky guesses. When they came to oounh' up their gains and losses at the end of the day, they found it was still a. neokâ€"andneck race, in opposite ways, between them. Hugh had won altogether close on nine thousand pounds. Rafl'alevsky had lost rather more than eight thousand five hun- dred. “ Never mind,” Hugh remarked with his inexhaustible buoyancy. “ We’re still to the good against his Monegasque High- ness. There’s a balance of something llke five hundred pounds in our joint favour.” “In other words,” Rafl‘slevsky answered with a. grim smlle, “you've won all my money and some other fellow’s too. You're the sponge that sucks up all my lifeblood. I’ve you barely three thousand five hundred left. When that goea”-â€"And be repeated once more the same expressive suicidal pan‘ tomine. That night Hugh slept at Monte Carlo once more. He had lost all sense of shame and decency now. He sent ofla note for two thousand francs to the people at :the pension, just as a guarantee of good faithâ€" as the newspapers sayâ€"and to let them know he was really returning. But he had formed a shadowy plan of his own by this time. He would wait another day at the Caeino and go home to San Remo with Warren Relf by the train that reached there at 6 39 â€"the train by which Elsie had said in her note he would be returning. Why he wished to do so, he hardly with distinotness knew himself. Certainly he did not mean to pick a. quarrel ; he only knew in a. vague not: of way he was going by that train; and until it started, he would keep on playing. And lose every penny he’d won. perhaps I Why now leave ofi‘ at once, secure of his eight thousand? Bah I when; was eight thouland now to him? He'd win a round twenty before he left offâ€"for Elsie. So he played next day from morning till night; played, and drank champagne fever iehly. Such luck had never been known at the tables. Old players stood by with observant: faces and admired his vein. Was ever a system seen like his ? Such judgment. they said; such restraint; such coolness! But inwardly, Hugh was consumed all day by a devouring fire. His excitement at last knew no bounds. He drank chum- pegne by the glassful to keep his nerve up. He had wen before nightfall, all told, no less a sum than eleven thousand pounds sterling. What was the miserable remnant of Whitestrend, now, to him 1 Let Whiteâ€" abrand sink in the sea for all he cared for it 1 He had here a. veritable mine of wealth. He would go back to San Remo to bury VVinifredâ€"and return to heap up a gigantic fortune. Eleven thousand pounds ! A mere bapa- telle. At five per cent. five hundred and fift_y_& yea; only 1_ His train was due to start at five. About four o’clock, Raflalevsky came up to him from another table. The Rassian’s face was white as death. “ I’ve lost all," he mur- mured hoarsely. drawing Hugh aside. “ The whole, the whole, my three hundred thou- sand francs of borrowed capitsl lâ€"And what's worse still, [borrowed it from the chestâ€"government moneyâ€"the treasury of the squsdron 1 If I go back alive I shall be court-martialed.â€"For heaven‘s sake, my friend, lend me at; least a few hundred francs to retrieve my luck with l” The Russian snapped at; them with a grateful gesture, but without hesitation or spoken thanks, and returned in hot haste to his own table. Gamblers have little time for needless talking. Hugh put his hand to his pile and drew out three notes of a thousand francs eachâ€" A hundred and twenty pounds sterling in all It was nothing, nothing, “Good luck go with them,” he cried good-humouredly. “When those are gone, my dear fellow, come back for more. I‘m not the man. I hope and trust,‘ to turn my back upon a comrade in misfortune.” A: a. quarter to five, after a. last hasty draught of champagne at the buffet, Hugh turned to go out, with his cash in his pockets. In front of him, he saw just an appari- tion of Rafl’alevaky rushing wildly away with one hand upon his forehead. The man’s face was awful to behold. Hugh 1er sure the Russian hadloat all once more, and been too much ashamed even to renew hin_z_:pplica.tion. Til-8.8168: "door swung slow upon its hinges, and Rafl‘ale L' burst into the outer corridor, boweMroom with great dignity, in 313'. f hlb . 'ntic haste, by 3 rr‘ Wt“ liveried “peanut. li‘fl'e 13 Age“? of ubaeqnicnaneés 35 Monte Carlo for every player..even if he has lost hm last Innis. They emergedjonoe more upon the beauti- ful terrace, the glorious view, the penoilled palm trees. All around. the sinuing Italian sun lit up that: fairy ceust with pmk and purple. Bay and rock and mountain side nhOW‘Bd all the more exquisite after the fptid air of those crowded gumim! saloons. High up on the shoulders of the inaccessible Alps the great square Roman keep at Turbis gazed down majesticslly with mute contempt on the feverish throng of miserable idlers who poured in and out through the gaudy portal: of the garish Casino. A serene delight ervsded Hugh Messinger’s placid soul; e felt himself vastly superior to these human butterflles ; he knew his own worth as he turned entren- oed from the msrble steps to the beautiful prospect that spread everywhere unrolled like a picture around him. Post as he was, he despised more gamblers; and he carried eleven thousand pounds odd of winnings in notes in his‘pooket. R‘r'r 1 A sharp report X A cry I A con- course 1 Something uncanny bad surely hnpponed. People were running up where the pistol went off. Hugh Mzsunger turn- ed with a shudder of disgust. How diu- compoaing I The usual ugly Manta Carlo incident I Rafl'nlevaky had shot himself be- hind tho shude of the palm-trees. The mm was lying, a. hideous msss, in s crimson pool of his own blood, prone on the groundâ€"hit through the temple with a. well-direCted bullet. It was a horrid sight, and Bugh‘e nerves were sensitive. If it hadn’t been for the chem- pagne, he would really have fainted. Be- sides, the train was nearly due. If you hover about where men hsve killed them- selves, you're liable to be let in for whet- ever may happen to be the Mouegssque equivalent for that time-honoured institu- tion. our own beloved British coroner’s in- quest. He might be hailed sea witness. Is that law? Ay, marry, is it? Crowner’s quest law 1 Better give it all a wide berth at once. The bell was ringing for the train below. With a sudden shudder. Hugh hurâ€" ried away item the ghastly object. After all, he had done his best (to save himâ€"lent him or given him three thousand francs to retrieve his losses. It was none of his fault If one man Wins, another man loses. Luck, luck, the mere incslculable chances of {the table I If their places had been re- versed, would that morose, ;unsocis.ble, ill- tempered Russian have volunteered to give him three thousand francs to throw away, he wondered? Never, never: ’bwas all for the best. The Russian had lost, and he wonâ€"eleven thousand pounds odd, for Elsie. He rushed away and dashed headlonv in- to the station. His own revolver was safe in his pocket. He carried eleven thousand pounds odd ;about him. No man should rob him without: a fight between here and San Remo. A Woman Swallows n Beptlle which Is Be- moved After Flve Yearhflorrlble Agony ofthe Sulfa-er. The wife of Mr. John Hawkins, foreman of one of the Toronto street cleaning gangs and residing at 41 Gloucester street, has been a. sufferer for a number of years and has been treated during that time by several medical men for consumption, catarrh of the stomach, etc. Her suiferinge grew more and more excrutiating, until last week, when the symptoms told unmistakably that some- thing was biting her internally. Medical aid was summoned and a mixture was ad- ministered which killed and finally expelled a lizard some eight inches in length and about as big around as the top of one’s fin- gen. v The medicine caused the creature to bite the unfortunate lady in the throat and stom- ach so severelv as to make her scream with pain. Latterly Mrs Hawkins. life has been one of great misery and discomfort. She could not lie down, as in that position the liznd would come up in her throat and bite her, so that she could get no sleep. Since the reptile has been removed Mrs. Hawkins has made very rapid progress to- warde recovery. Mr. Hawkins in of the opinion that his wife swallowed the lizard, some six years ago, when they lived in the country near Saratford, and were in the habit of drinking spring water. London “Life” says :â€"Of people who have curious wsys of living few can be more original than was the late Rev. Duuckley Thomas, who had engaged rooms in Mrs. Wildish’s house in 1881, and lived there till 1887. He never permitted her or her servants to enter his room, except: once a fort-night. He paid his rent weekly, and at each payment he also gave notice that he would quitin the week following. He never did quit, but he thus preserved his liberty unimpaired. Among his property, consist- ing of £3000 or $10,000, he had a. note of deposit of £1,500, which, whenever he be- came ill, he would always present to 1113 landlady on the condition that if he recov- ered she should give it back lum- Thls occurred frulueutly, Mrs Wildish always returning the note. Finally Mr. Thomas died, and his executor sued her for the note, which the courts finally gave to her. The result of recent enquiries seems toleavs little doubt that the charges made against the employee of the Alaska Commercial Com pany of ill-treating the native women have only too good a foundation in fact. It is stated that the- deienceless native women are made victims of the unbridled immorality of the white settlers, and the most horrible abuses have resulted from this state of things. The natives have appealed to the United States Government for protection, and the civilized world is now looking to Washington for measures of reform and re- dress. The agents and employee of the Com- mercial Company are supposed to becitizsns of a Christian country, but their practices in Alaska have certainly cast a stigma both on Christianity and civilfzxtion. It is stated on good authority that Mr. John M. Egan, formerly superintendent of the prairie section of the Canadian Pacific railway, is to be made manager of the entire line. TORTURE!) BY A LIZIRD. A Queer 01d Fellow. (TO BE CONTINUED.)