"My dear Geraldine," returned Prince Florizel, "I always regret
when you oblige me to remember my rank.  Dispose of your day as you
think fit, but be here before eleven in the same disguise."

The club, on this second evening, was not so fully attended; and
when Geraldine and the Prince arrived, there were not above half-a-
dozen persons in the smoking-room.  His Highness took the President
aside and congratulated him warmly on the demise of Mr. Malthus.

"I like," he said, "to meet with capacity, and certainly find much
of it in you.  Your profession is of a very delicate nature, but I
see you are well qualified to conduct it with success and secrecy."

The President was somewhat affected by these compliments from one
of his Highness's superior bearing.  He acknowledged them almost
with humility.

"Poor Malthy!" he added, "I shall hardly know the club without him.
The most of my patrons are boys, sir, and poetical boys, who are
not much company for me.  Not but what Malthy had some poetry, too;
but it was of a kind that I could understand."

"I can readily imagine you should find yourself in sympathy with
Mr. Malthus," returned the Prince.  "He struck me as a man of a
very original disposition."

The young man of the cream tarts was in the room, but painfully
depressed and silent.  His late companions sought in vain to lead
him into conversation.

"How bitterly I wish," he cried, "that I had never brought you to
this infamous abode!  Begone, while you are clean-handed.  If you
could have heard the old man scream as he fell, and the noise of
his bones upon the pavement!  Wish me, if you have any kindness to
so fallen a being - wish the ace of spades for me to-night!"

A few more members dropped in as the evening went on, but the club
did not muster more than the devil's dozen when they took their
places at the table.  The Prince was again conscious of a certain
joy in his alarms; but he was astonished to see Geraldine so much
more self-possessed than on the night before.

"It is extraordinary," thought the Prince, "that a will, made or
unmade, should so greatly influence a young man's spirit."

"Attention, gentlemen!" said the President, and he began to deal.

Three times the cards went all round the table, and neither of the
marked cards had yet fallen from his hand.  The excitement as he
began the fourth distribution was overwhelming.  There were just
cards enough to go once more entirely round.  The Prince, who sat
second from the dealer's left, would receive, in the reverse mode
of dealing practised at the club, the second last card.  The third
player turned up a black ace - it was the ace of clubs.  The next
received a diamond, the next a heart, and so on; but the ace of
spades was still undelivered.  At last, Geraldine, who sat upon the
Prince's left, turned his card; it was an ace, but the ace of
hearts.

When Prince Florizel saw his fate upon the table in front of him,
his heart stood still.  He was a brave man, but the sweat poured
off his face.  There were exactly fifty chances out of a hundred
that he was doomed.  He reversed the card; it was the ace of
spades.  A loud roaring filled his brain, and the table swam before
his eyes.  He heard the player on his right break into a fit of
laughter that sounded between mirth and disappointment; he saw the
company rapidly dispersing, but his mind was full of other
thoughts.  He recognised how foolish, how criminal, had been his
conduct.  In perfect health, in the prime of his years, the heir to
a throne, he had gambled away his future and that of a brave and
loyal country.  "God," he cried, "God forgive me!"  And with that,
the confusion of his senses passed away, and he regained his self-
possession in a moment.

To his surprise Geraldine had disappeared.  There was no one in the
card-room but his destined butcher consulting with the President,
and the young man of the cream tarts, who slipped up to the Prince,
and whispered in his ear:-

"I would give a million, if I had it, for your luck."

His Highness could not help reflecting, as the young man departed,
that he would have sold his opportunity for a much more moderate
sum.

The whispered conference now came to an end.  The holder of the ace
of clubs left the room with a look of intelligence, and the
President, approaching the unfortunate Prince, proffered him his
hand.

"I am pleased to have met you, sir," said he, "and pleased to have
been in a position to do you this trifling service.  At least, you
cannot complain of delay.  On the second evening - what a stroke of
luck!"

The Prince endeavoured in vain to articulate something in response,
but his mouth was dry and his tongue seemed paralysed.

"You feel a little sickish?" asked the President, with some show of
solicitude.  "Most gentlemen do.  Will you take a little brandy?"

The Prince signified in the affirmative, and the other immediately
filled some of the spirit into a tumbler.

"Poor old Malthy!" ejaculated the President, as the Prince drained
the glass.  "He drank near upon a pint, and little enough good it
seemed to do him!"

"I am more amenable to treatment," said the Prince, a good deal
revived.  "I am my own man again at once, as you perceive.  And so,
let me ask you, what are my directions?"

"You will proceed along the Strand in the direction of the City,
and on the left-hand pavement, until you meet the gentleman who has
just left the room.  He will continue your instructions, and him
you will have the kindness to obey; the authority of the club is
vested in his person for the night.  And now," added the President,
"I wish you a pleasant walk."

Florizel acknowledged the salutation rather awkwardly, and took his
leave.  He passed through the smoking-room, where the bulk of the
players were still consuming champagne, some of which he had
himself ordered and paid for; and he was surprised to find himself
cursing them in his heart.  He put on his hat and greatcoat in the
cabinet, and selected his umbrella from a corner.  The familiarity
of these acts, and the thought that he was about them for the last
time, betrayed him into a fit of laughter which sounded
unpleasantly in his own ears.  He conceived a reluctance to leave
the cabinet, and turned instead to the window.  The sight of the
lamps and the darkness recalled him to himself.

"Come, come, I must be a man," he thought, "and tear myself away."

At the corner of Box Court three men fell upon Prince Florizel and
he was unceremoniously thrust into a carriage, which at once drove
rapidly away.  There was already an occupant.

"Will your Highness pardon my zeal?" said a well known voice.

The Prince threw himself upon the Colonel's neck in a passion of
relief.

"How can I ever thank you?" he cried.  "And how was this effected?"

Although he had been willing to march upon his doom, he was
overjoyed to yield to friendly violence, and return once more to
life and hope.

"You can thank me effectually enough," replied the Colonel, "by
avoiding all such dangers in the future.  And as for your second
question, all has been managed by the simplest means.  I arranged
this afternoon with a celebrated detective.  Secrecy has been
promised and paid for.  Your own servants have been principally
engaged in the affair.  The house in Box Court has been surrounded
since nightfall, and this, which is one of your own carriages, has
been awaiting you for nearly an hour."

"And the miserable creature who was to have slain me - what of
him?" inquired the Prince.

"He was pinioned as he left the club," replied the Colonel, "and
now awaits your sentence at the Palace, where he will soon be
joined by his accomplices."

"Geraldine," said the Prince, "you have saved me against my
explicit orders, and you have done well.  I owe you not only my
life, but a lesson; and I should be unworthy of my rank if I did
not show myself grateful to my teacher.  Let it be yours to choose
the manner."

There was a pause, during which the carriage continued to speed
through the streets, and the two men were each buried in his own
reflections.  The silence was broken by Colonel Geraldine.

"Your Highness," said he, "has by this time a considerable body of
prisoners.  There is at least one criminal among the number to whom
justice should be dealt.  Our oath forbids us all recourse to law;
and discretion would forbid it equally if the oath were loosened.
May I inquire your Highness's intention?"

"It is decided," answered Florizel; "the President must fall in
duel.  It only remains to choose his adversary."

"Your Highness has permitted me to name my own recompense," said
the Colonel.  "Will he permit me to ask the appointment of my
brother?  It is an honourable post, but I dare assure your Highness
that the lad will acquit himself with credit."

"You ask me an ungracious favour," said the Prince, "but I must
refuse you nothing."

The Colonel kissed his hand with the greatest affection; and at
that moment the carriage rolled under the archway of the Prince's
splendid residence.

An hour after, Florizel in his official robes, and covered with all
the orders of Bohemia, received the members of the Suicide Club.

"Foolish and wicked men," said he, "as many of you as have been
driven into this strait by the lack of fortune shall receive
employment and remuneration from my officers.  Those who suffer
under a sense of guilt must have recourse to a higher and more
generous Potentate than I.  I feel pity for all of you, deeper than
you can imagine; to-morrow you shall tell me your stories; and as
you answer more frankly, I shall be the more able to remedy your
misfortunes.  As for you," he added, turning to the President, "I
should only offend a person of your parts by any offer of
assistance; but I have instead a piece of diversion to propose to
you.  Here," laying his hand on the shoulder of Colonel Geraldine's
young brother, "is an officer of mine who desires to make a little
tour upon the Continent; and I ask you, as a favour, to accompany
him on this excursion.  Do you," he went on, changing his tone, "do
you shoot well with the pistol?  Because you may have need of that
accomplishment.  When two men go travelling together, it is best to
be prepared for all.  Let me add that, if by any chance you should
lose young Mr. Geraldine upon the way, I shall always have another
member of my household to place at your disposal; and I am known,
Mr. President, to have long eyesight, and as long an arm."

With these words, said with much sternness, the Prince concluded
his address.  Next morning the members of the club were suitably
provided for by his munificence, and the President set forth upon
his travels, under the supervision of Mr. Geraldine, and a pair of
faithful and adroit lackeys, well trained in the Prince's
household.  Not content with this, discreet agents were put in
possession of the house in Box Court, and all letters or visitors
for the Suicide Club or its officials were to be examined by Prince
Florizel in person.

Here (says my Arabian author) ends THE STORY OF THE YOUNG MAN WITH
THE CREAM TARTS, who is now a comfortable householder in Wigmore
Street, Cavendish Square.  The number, for obvious reasons, I
suppress.   Those who care to pursue the adventures of Prince
Florizel and the President of the Suicide Club, may read the
HISTORY OF THE PHYSICIAN AND THE SARATOGA TRUNK.



STORY OF THE PHYSICIAN AND THE SARATOGA TRUNK



MR. SILAS Q. SCUDDAMORE was a young American of a simple and
harmless disposition, which was the more to his credit as he came
from New England - a quarter of the New World not precisely famous
for those qualities.  Although he was exceedingly rich, he kept a
note of all his expenses in a little paper pocket-book; and he had
chosen to study the attractions of Paris from the seventh story of
what is called a furnished hotel, in the Latin Quarter.  There was
a great deal of habit in his penuriousness; and his virtue, which
was very remarkable among his associates, was principally founded
upon diffidence and youth.

The next room to his was inhabited by a lady, very attractive in
her air and very elegant in toilette, whom, on his first arrival,
he had taken for a Countess.  In course of time he had learned that
she was known by the name of Madame Zephyrine, and that whatever
station she occupied in life it was not that of a person of title.
Madame Zephyrine, probably in the hope of enchanting the young
American, used to flaunt by him on the stairs with a civil
inclination, a word of course, and a knock-down look out of her
black eyes, and disappear in a rustle of silk, and with the
revelation of an admirable foot and ankle.  But these advances, so
far from encouraging Mr. Scuddamore, plunged him into the depths of
depression and bashfulness.  She had come to him several times for
a light, or to apologise for the imaginary depredations of her
poodle; but his mouth was closed in the presence of so superior a
being, his French promptly left him, and he could only stare and
stammer until she was gone.  The slenderness of their intercourse
did not prevent him from throwing out insinuations of a very
glorious order when he was safely alone with a few males.

The room on the other side of the American's - for there were three
rooms on a floor in the hotel - was tenanted by an old English
physician of rather doubtful reputation.  Dr. Noel, for that was
his name, had been forced to leave London, where he enjoyed a large
and increasing practice; and it was hinted that the police had been
the instigators of this change of scene.  At least he, who had made
something of a figure in earlier life, now dwelt in the Latin
Quarter in great simplicity and solitude, and devoted much of his
time to study.  Mr. Scuddamore had made his acquaintance, and the
pair would now and then dine together frugally in a restaurant
across the street.

Silas Q. Scuddamore had many little vices of the more respectable
order, and was not restrained by delicacy from indulging them in
many rather doubtful ways.  Chief among his foibles stood
curiosity.  He was a born gossip; and life, and especially those
parts of it in which he had no experience, interested him to the
degree of passion.  He was a pert, invincible questioner, pushing
his inquiries with equal pertinacity and indiscretion; he had been
observed, when he took a letter to the post, to weigh it in his
hand, to turn it over and over, and to study the address with care;
and when he found a flaw in the partition between his room and
Madame Zephyrine's, instead of filling it up, he enlarged and
improved the opening, and made use of it as a spy-hole on his
neighbour's affairs.

One day, in the end of March, his curiosity growing as it was
indulged, he enlarged the hole a little further, so that he might
command another corner of the room.  That evening, when he went as
usual to inspect Madame Zephyrine's movements, he was astonished to
find the aperture obscured in an odd manner on the other side, and
still more abashed when the obstacle was suddenly withdrawn and a
titter of laughter reached his ears.  Some of the plaster had
evidently betrayed the secret of his spy-hole, and his neighbour
had been returning the compliment in kind.  Mr. Scuddamore was
moved to a very acute feeling of annoyance; he condemned Madame
Zephyrine unmercifully; he even blamed himself; but when he found,
next day, that she had taken no means to baulk him of his favourite
pastime, he continued to profit by her carelessness, and gratify
his idle curiosity.

That next day Madame Zephyrine received a long visit from a tall,
loosely-built man of fifty or upwards, whom Silas had not hitherto
seen.  His tweed suit and coloured shirt, no less than his shaggy
side-whiskers, identified him as a Britisher, and his dull grey eye
affected Silas with a sense of cold.  He kept screwing his mouth
from side to side and round and round during the whole colloquy,
which was carried on in whispers.  More than once it seemed to the
young New Englander as if their gestures indicated his own
apartment; but the only thing definite he could gather by the most
scrupulous attention was this remark made by the Englishman in a
somewhat higher key, as if in answer to some reluctance or
opposition.

"I have studied his taste to a nicety, and I tell you again and
again you are the only woman of the sort that I can lay my hands
on."

In answer to this, Madame Zephyrine sighed, and appeared by a
gesture to resign herself, like one yielding to unqualified
authority.

That afternoon the observatory was finally blinded, a wardrobe
having been drawn in front of it upon the other side; and while
Silas was still lamenting over this misfortune, which he attributed
to the Britisher's malign suggestion, the concierge brought him up
a letter in a female handwriting.  It was conceived in French of no
very rigorous orthography, bore no signature, and in the most
encouraging terms invited the young American to be present in a
certain part of the Bullier Ball at eleven o'clock that night.
Curiosity and timidity fought a long battle in his heart; sometimes
he was all virtue, sometimes all fire and daring; and the result of
it was that, long before ten, Mr. Silas Q. Scuddamore presented
himself in unimpeachable attire at the door of the Bullier Ball
Rooms, and paid his entry money with a sense of reckless devilry
that was not without its charm.

It was Carnival time, and the Ball was very full and noisy.  The
lights and the crowd at first rather abashed our young adventurer,
and then, mounting to his brain with a sort of intoxication, put
him in possession of more than his own share of manhood.  He felt
ready to face the devil, and strutted in the ballroom with the
swagger of a cavalier.  While he was thus parading, he became aware
of Madame Zephyrine and her Britisher in conference behind a
pillar.  The cat-like spirit of eaves-dropping overcame him at
once.  He stole nearer and nearer on the couple from behind, until
he was within earshot.

"That is the man," the Britisher was saying; "there - with the long
blond hair - speaking to a girl in green."

Silas identified a very handsome young fellow of small stature, who
was plainly the object of this designation.

"It is well," said Madame Zephyrine.  "I shall do my utmost.  But,
remember, the best of us may fail in such a matter."

"Tut!" returned her companion; "I answer for the result.  Have I
not chosen you from thirty?  Go; but be wary of the Prince.  I
cannot think what cursed accident has brought him here to-night.
As if there were not a dozen balls in Paris better worth his notice
than this riot of students and counter-jumpers!  See him where he
sits, more like a reigning Emperor at home than a Prince upon his
holidays!"

Silas was again lucky.  He observed a person of rather a full
build, strikingly handsome, and of a very stately and courteous
demeanour, seated at table with another handsome young man, several
years his junior, who addressed him with conspicuous deference.
The name of Prince struck gratefully on Silas's Republican hearing,
and the aspect of the person to whom that name was applied
exercised its usual charm upon his mind.  He left Madame Zephyrine
and her Englishman to take care of each other, and threading his
way through the assembly, approached the table which the Prince and
his confidant had honoured with their choice.

"I tell you, Geraldine," the former was saying, "the action is
madness.  Yourself (I am glad to remember it) chose your brother
for this perilous service, and you are bound in duty to have a
guard upon his conduct.  He has consented to delay so many days in
Paris; that was already an imprudence, considering the character of
the man he has to deal with; but now, when he is within eight-and-
forty hours of his departure, when he is within two or three days
of the decisive trial, I ask you, is this a place for him to spend
his time?  He should be in a gallery at practice; he should be
sleeping long hours and taking moderate exercise on foot; he should
be on a rigorous diet, without white wines or brandy.  Does the dog
imagine we are all playing comedy?  The thing is deadly earnest,
Geraldine."

"I know the lad too well to interfere," replied Colonel Geraldine,
"and well enough not to be alarmed.  He is more cautious than you
fancy, and of an indomitable spirit.  If it had been a woman I
should not say so much, but I trust the President to him and the
two valets without an instant's apprehension."

"I am gratified to hear you say so," replied the Prince; "but my
mind is not at rest.  These servants are well-trained spies, and
already has not this miscreant succeeded three times in eluding
their observation and spending several hours on end in private, and
most likely dangerous, affairs?  An amateur might have lost him by
accident, but if Rudolph and Jerome were thrown off the scent, it
must have been done on purpose, and by a man who had a cogent
reason and exceptional resources."

"I believe the question is now one between my brother and myself,"
replied Geraldine, with a shade of offence in his tone.

"I permit it to be so, Colonel Geraldine," returned Prince
Florizel.  "Perhaps, for that very reason, you should be all the
more ready to accept my counsels.  But enough.  That girl in yellow
dances well."

And the talk veered into the ordinary topics of a Paris ballroom in
the Carnival.

Silas remembered where he was, and that the hour was already near
at hand when he ought to be upon the scene of his assignation.  The
more he reflected the less he liked the prospect, and as at that
moment an eddy in the crowd began to draw him in the direction of
the door, he suffered it to carry him away without resistance.  The
eddy stranded him in a corner under the gallery, where his ear was
immediately struck with the voice of Madame Zephyrine.  She was
speaking in French with the young man of the blond locks who had
been pointed out by the strange Britisher not half-an-hour before.

"I have a character at stake," she said, "or I would put no other
condition than my heart recommends.  But you have only to say so
much to the porter, and he will let you go by without a word."

"But why this talk of debt?" objected her companion.

"Heavens!" said she, "do you think I do not understand my own
hotel?"

And she went by, clinging affectionately to her companion's arm.

This put Silas in mind of his billet.

"Ten minutes hence," thought he, "and I may be walking with as
beautiful a woman as that, and even better dressed - perhaps a real
lady, possibly a woman or title."

And then he remembered the spelling, and was a little downcast.

"But it may have been written by her maid," he imagined.

The clock was only a few minutes from the hour, and this immediate
proximity set his heart beating at a curious and rather
disagreeable speed.  He reflected with relief that he was in no way
bound to put in an appearance.  Virtue and cowardice were together,
and he made once more for the door, but this time of his own
accord, and battling against the stream of people which was now
moving in a contrary direction.  Perhaps this prolonged resistance
wearied him, or perhaps he was in that frame of mind when merely to
continue in the same determination for a certain number of minutes
produces a reaction and a different purpose.  Certainly, at least,
he wheeled about for a third time, and did not stop until he had
found a place of concealment within a few yards of the appointed
place.

Here he went through an agony of spirit, in which he several times
prayed to God for help, for Silas had been devoutly educated.  He
had now not the least inclination for the meeting; nothing kept him
from flight but a silly fear lest he should be thought unmanly; but
this was so powerful that it kept head against all other motives;
and although it could not decide him to advance, prevented him from
definitely running away.  At last the clock indicated ten minutes
past the hour.  Young Scuddamore's spirit began to rise; he peered
round the corner and saw no one at the place of meeting; doubtless
his unknown correspondent had wearied and gone away.  He became as
bold as he had formerly been timid.  It seemed to him that if he
came at all to the appointment, however late, he was clear from the
charge of cowardice.  Nay, now he began to suspect a hoax, and
actually complimented himself on his shrewdness in having suspected
and outmanoeuvred his mystifiers.  So very idle a thing is a boy's
mind!

Armed with these reflections, he advanced boldly from his corner;
but he had not taken above a couple of steps before a hand was laid
upon his arm.  He turned and beheld a lady cast in a very large
mould and with somewhat stately features, but bearing no mark of
severity in her looks.

"I see that you are a very self-confident lady-killer," said she;
"for you make yourself expected.  But I was determined to meet you.
When a woman has once so far forgotten herself as to make the first
advance, she has long ago left behind her all considerations of
petty pride."

Silas was overwhelmed by the size and attractions of his
correspondent and the suddenness with which she had fallen upon
him.  But she soon set him at his ease.  She was very towardly and
lenient in her behaviour; she led him on to make pleasantries, and
then applauded him to the echo; and in a very short time, between
blandishments and a liberal exhibition of warm brandy, she had not
only induced him to fancy himself in love, but to declare his
passion with the greatest vehemence.

"Alas!" she said; "I do not know whether I ought not to deplore
this moment, great as is the pleasure you give me by your words.
Hitherto I was alone to suffer; now, poor boy, there will be two.
I am not my own mistress.  I dare not ask you to visit me at my own
house, for I am watched by jealous eyes.  Let me see," she added;
"I am older than you, although so much weaker; and while I trust in
your courage and determination, I must employ my own knowledge of
the world for our mutual benefit.  Where do you live?"

He told her that he lodged in a furnished hotel, and named the
street and number.

She seemed to reflect for some minutes, with an effort of mind.

"I see," she said at last.  "You will be faithful and obedient,
will you not?"

Silas assured her eagerly of his fidelity.

"To-morrow night, then," she continued, with an encouraging smile,
"you must remain at home all the evening; and if any friends should
visit you, dismiss them at once on any pretext that most readily
presents itself.  Your door is probably shut by ten?" she asked.

"By eleven," answered Silas.

"At a quarter past eleven," pursued the lady, "leave the house.
Merely cry for the door to be opened, and be sure you fall into no
talk with the porter, as that might ruin everything.  Go straight
to the corner where the Luxembourg Gardens join the Boulevard;
there you will find me waiting you.  I trust you to follow my
advice from point to point:  and remember, if you fail me in only
one particular, you will bring the sharpest trouble on a woman
whose only fault is to have seen and loved you."

"I cannot see the use of all these instructions," said Silas.

"I believe you are already beginning to treat me as a master," she
cried, tapping him with her fan upon the arm.  "Patience, patience!
that should come in time.  A woman loves to be obeyed at first,
although afterwards she finds her pleasure in obeying.  Do as I ask
you, for Heaven's sake, or I will answer for nothing.  Indeed, now
I think of it," she added, with the manner of one who has just seen
further into a difficulty, "I find a better plan of keeping
importunate visitors away.  Tell the porter to admit no one for
you, except a person who may come that night to claim a debt; and
speak with some feeling, as though you feared the interview, so
that he may take your words in earnest."

"I think you may trust me to protect myself against intruders," he
said, not without a little pique.

"That is how I should prefer the thing arranged," she answered
coldly.  "I know you men; you think nothing of a woman's
reputation."

Silas blushed and somewhat hung his head; for the scheme he had in
view had involved a little vain-glorying before his acquaintances.

"Above all," she added, "do not speak to the porter as you come
out."

"And why?" said he.  "Of all your instructions, that seems to me
the least important."

"You at first doubted the wisdom of some of the others, which you
now see to be very necessary," she replied.  "Believe me, this also
has its uses; in time you will see them; and what am I to think of
your affection, if you refuse me such trifles at our first
interview?"

Silas confounded himself in explanations and apologies; in the
middle of these she looked up at the clock and clapped her hands
together with a suppressed scream.

"Heavens!" she cried, "is it so late?  I have not an instant to
lose.  Alas, we poor women, what slaves we are!  What have I not
risked for you already?"

And after repeating her directions, which she artfully combined
with caresses and the most abandoned looks, she bade him farewell
and disappeared among the crowd.

The whole of the next day Silas was filled with a sense of great
importance; he was now sure she was a countess; and when evening
came he minutely obeyed her orders and was at the corner of the
Luxembourg Gardens by the hour appointed.  No one was there.  He
waited nearly half-an-hour, looking in the face of every one who
passed or loitered near the spot; he even visited the neighbouring
corners of the Boulevard and made a complete circuit of the garden
railings; but there was no beautiful countess to throw herself into
his arms.  At last, and most reluctantly, he began to retrace his
steps towards his hotel.  On the way he remembered the words he had
heard pass between Madame Zephyrine and the blond young man, and
they gave him an indefinite uneasiness.

"It appears," he reflected, "that every one has to tell lies to our
porter."

He rang the bell, the door opened before him, and the porter in his
bed-clothes came to offer him a light.

"Has he gone?" inquired the porter.

"He?  Whom do you mean?" asked Silas, somewhat sharply, for he was
irritated by his disappointment.

"I did not notice him go out," continued the porter, "but I trust
you paid him.  We do not care, in this house, to have lodgers who
cannot meet their liabilities."

"What the devil do you mean?" demanded Silas rudely.  "I cannot
understand a word of this farrago."

"The short blond young man who came for his debt," returned the
other.  "Him it is I mean.  Who else should it be, when I had your
orders to admit no one else?"

"Why, good God, of course he never came," retorted Silas.

"I believe what I believe," returned the porter, putting his tongue
into his cheek with a most roguish air.

"You are an insolent scoundrel," cried Silas, and, feeling that he
had made a ridiculous exhibition of asperity, and at the same time
bewildered by a dozen alarms, he turned and began to run upstairs.

"Do you not want a light then?" cried the porter.

But Silas only hurried the faster, and did not pause until he had
reached the seventh landing and stood in front of his own door.
There he waited a moment to recover his breath, assailed by the
worst forebodings and almost dreading to enter the room.

When at last he did so he was relieved to find it dark, and to all
appearance, untenanted.  He drew a long breath.  Here he was, home
again in safety, and this should be his last folly as certainly as
it had been his first.  The matches stood on a little table by the
bed, and he began to grope his way in that direction.  As he moved,
his apprehensions grew upon him once more, and he was pleased, when
his foot encountered an obstacle, to find it nothing more alarming
than a chair.  At last he touched curtains.  From the position of
the window, which was faintly visible, he knew he must be at the
foot of the bed, and had only to feel his way along it in order to
reach the table in question.

He lowered his hand, but what it touched was not simply a
counterpane - it was a counterpane with something underneath it
like the outline of a human leg.  Silas withdrew his arm and stood
a moment petrified.

"What, what," he thought, "can this betoken?"

He listened intently, but there was no sound of breathing.  Once
more, with a great effort, he reached out the end of his finger to
the spot he had already touched; but this time he leaped back half
a yard, and stood shivering and fixed with terror.  There was
something in his bed.  What it was he knew not, but there was
something there.

It was some seconds before he could move.  Then, guided by an
instinct, he fell straight upon the matches, and keeping his back
towards the bed lighted a candle.  As soon as the flame had
kindled, he turned slowly round and looked for what he feared to
see.  Sure enough, there was the worst of his imaginations
realised.  The coverlid was drawn carefully up over the pillow, but
it moulded the outline of a human body lying motionless; and when
he dashed forward and flung aside the sheets, he beheld the blond
young man whom he had seen in the Bullier Ball the night before,
his eyes open and without speculation, his face swollen and
blackened, and a thin stream of blood trickling from his nostrils.

Silas uttered a long, tremulous wail, dropped the candle, and fell
on his knees beside the bed.

Silas was awakened from the stupor into which his terrible
discovery had plunged him by a prolonged but discreet tapping at
the door.  It took him some seconds to remember his position; and
when he hastened to prevent anyone from entering it was already too
late.  Dr. Noel, in a tall night-cap, carrying a lamp which lighted
up his long white countenance, sidling in his gait, and peering and
cocking his head like some sort of bird, pushed the door slowly
open, and advanced into the middle of the room.

"I thought I heard a cry," began the Doctor, "and fearing you might
be unwell I did not hesitate to offer this intrusion."

Silas, with a flushed face and a fearful beating heart, kept
between the Doctor and the bed; but he found no voice to answer.

"You are in the dark," pursued the Doctor; "and yet you have not
even begun to prepare for rest.  You will not easily persuade me
against my own eyesight; and your face declares most eloquently
that you require either a friend or a physician - which is it to
be?  Let me feel your pulse, for that is often a just reporter of
the heart."

He advanced to Silas, who still retreated before him backwards, and
sought to take him by the wrist; but the strain on the young
American's nerves had become too great for endurance.  He avoided
the Doctor with a febrile movement, and, throwing himself upon the
floor, burst into a flood of weeping.

As soon as Dr. Noel perceived the dead man in the bed his face
darkened; and hurrying back to the door which he had left ajar, he
hastily closed and double-locked it.

"Up!" he cried, addressing Silas in strident tones; "this is no
time for weeping.  What have you done?  How came this body in your
room?  Speak freely to one who may be helpful.  Do you imagine I
would ruin you?  Do you think this piece of dead flesh on your
pillow can alter in any degree the sympathy with which you have
inspired me?  Credulous youth, the horror with which blind and
unjust law regards an action never attaches to the doer in the eyes
of those who love him; and if I saw the friend of my heart return
to me out of seas of blood he would be in no way changed in my
affection.  Raise yourself," he said; "good and ill are a chimera;
there is nought in life except destiny, and however you may be
circumstanced there is one at your side who will help you to the
last."

Thus encouraged, Silas gathered himself together, and in a broken
voice, and helped out by the Doctor's interrogations, contrived at
last to put him in possession of the facts.  But the conversation
between the Prince and Geraldine he altogether omitted, as he had
understood little of its purport, and had no idea that it was in
any way related to his own misadventure.

"Alas!" cried Dr. Noel, "I am much abused, or you have fallen
innocently into the most dangerous hands in Europe.  Poor boy, what
a pit has been dug for your simplicity! into what a deadly peril
have your unwary feet been conducted!  This man," he said, "this
Englishman, whom you twice saw, and whom I suspect to be the soul
of the contrivance, can you describe him?  Was he young or old?
tall or short?"

But Silas, who, for all his curiosity, had not a seeing eye in his
head, was able to supply nothing but meagre generalities, which it
was impossible to recognise.

"I would have it a piece of education in all schools!" cried the
Doctor angrily.  "Where is the use of eyesight and articulate
speech if a man cannot observe and recollect the features of his
enemy?  I, who know all the gangs of Europe, might have identified
him, and gained new weapons for your defence.  Cultivate this art
in future, my poor boy; you may find it of momentous service."

"The future!" repeated Silas.  "What future is there left for me
except the gallows?"

"Youth is but a cowardly season," returned the Doctor; "and a man's
own troubles look blacker than they are.  I am old, and yet I never
despair."

"Can I tell such a story to the police?" demanded Silas.

"Assuredly not," replied the Doctor.  "From what I see already of
the machination in which you have been involved, your case is
desperate upon that side; and for the narrow eye of the authorities
you are infallibly the guilty person.  And remember that we only
know a portion of the plot; and the same infamous contrivers have
doubtless arranged many other circumstances which would be elicited
by a police inquiry, and help to fix the guilt more certainly upon
your innocence."

"I am then lost, indeed!" cried Silas.

"I have not said so," answered Dr. Noel "for I am a cautious man."

"But look at this!" objected Silas, pointing to the body.  "Here is
this object in my bed; not to be explained, not to be disposed of,
not to be regarded without horror."

"Horror?" replied the Doctor.  "No.  When this sort of clock has
run down, it is no more to me than an ingenious piece of mechanism,
to be investigated with the bistoury.  When blood is once cold and
stagnant, it is no longer human blood; when flesh is once dead, it
is no longer that flesh which we desire in our lovers and respect
in our friends.  The grace, the attraction, the terror, have all
gone from it with the animating spirit.  Accustom yourself to look
upon it with composure; for if my scheme is practicable you will
have to live some days in constant proximity to that which now so
greatly horrifies you."

"Your scheme?" cried Silas.  "What is that?  Tell me speedily,
Doctor; for I have scarcely courage enough to continue to exist."

Without replying, Doctor Noel turned towards the bed, and proceeded
to examine the corpse.

"Quite dead," he murmured.  "Yes, as I had supposed, the pockets
empty.  Yes, and the name cut off the shirt.  Their work has been
done thoroughly and well.  Fortunately, he is of small stature."

Silas followed these words with an extreme anxiety.  At last the
Doctor, his autopsy completed, took a chair and addressed the young
American with a smile.

"Since I came into your room," said he, "although my ears and my
tongue have been so busy, I have not suffered my eyes to remain
idle.  I noted a little while ago that you have there, in the
corner, one of those monstrous constructions which your fellow-
countrymen carry with them into all quarters of the globe - in a
word, a Saratoga trunk.  Until this moment I have never been able
to conceive the utility of these erections; but then I began to
have a glimmer.  Whether it was for convenience in the slave trade,
or to obviate the results of too ready an employment of the bowie-
knife, I cannot bring myself to decide.  But one thing I see
plainly - the object of such a box is to contain a human body.

"Surely," cried Silas, "surely this is not a time for jesting."

"Although I may express myself with some degree of pleasantry,"
replied the Doctor, "the purport of my words is entirely serious.
And the first thing we have to do, my young friend, is to empty
your coffer of all that it contains."

Silas, obeying the authority of Doctor Noel, put himself at his
disposition.  The Saratoga trunk was soon gutted of its contents,
which made a considerable litter on the floor; and then - Silas
taking the heels and the Doctor supporting the shoulders - the body
of the murdered man was carried from the bed, and, after some
difficulty, doubled up and inserted whole into the empty box.  With
an effort on the part of both, the lid was forced down upon this
unusual baggage, and the trunk was locked and corded by the
Doctor's own hand, while Silas disposed of what had been taken out
between the closet and a chest of drawers.

"Now," said the Doctor, "the first step has been taken on the way
to your deliverance.  To-morrow, or rather to-day, it must be your
task to allay the suspicions of your porter, paying him all that
you owe; while you may trust me to make the arrangements necessary
to a safe conclusion.  Meantime, follow me to my room, where I
shall give you a safe and powerful opiate; for, whatever you do,
you must have rest."

The next day was the longest in Silas's memory; it seemed as if it
would never be done.  He denied himself to his friends, and sat in
a corner with his eyes fixed upon the Saratoga trunk in dismal
contemplation.  His own former indiscretions were now returned upon
him in kind; for the observatory had been once more opened, and he
was conscious of an almost continual study from Madame Zephyrine's
apartment.  So distressing did this become, that he was at last
obliged to block up the spy-hole from his own side; and when he was
thus secured from observation he spent a considerable portion of
his time in contrite tears and prayer.

Late in the evening Dr. Noel entered the room carrying in his hand
a pair of sealed envelopes without address, one somewhat bulky, and
the other so slim as to seem without enclosure.

"Silas," he said, seating himself at the table, "the time has now
come for me to explain my plan for your salvation.  To-morrow
morning, at an early hour, Prince Florizel of Bohemia returns to
London, after having diverted himself for a few days with the
Parisian Carnival.  It was my fortune, a good while ago, to do
Colonel Geraldine, his Master of the Horse, one of those services,
so common in my profession, which are never forgotten upon either
side.  I have no need to explain to you the nature of the
obligation under which he was laid; suffice it to say that I knew
him ready to serve me in any practicable manner.  Now, it was
necessary for you to gain London with your trunk unopened.  To this
the Custom House seemed to oppose a fatal difficulty; but I
bethought me that the baggage of so considerable a person as the
Prince, is, as a matter of courtesy, passed without examination by
the officers of Custom.  I applied to Colonel Geraldine, and
succeeded in obtaining a favourable answer.  To-morrow, if you go
before six to the hotel where the Prince lodges, your baggage will
be passed over as a part of his, and you yourself will make the
journey as a member of his suite."

"It seems to me, as you speak, that I have already seen both the
Prince and Colonel Geraldine; I even overheard some of their
conversation the other evening at the Bullier Ball."

"It is probable enough; for the Prince loves to mix with all
societies," replied the Doctor.  "Once arrived in London," he
pursued, "your task is nearly ended.  In this more bulky envelope I
have given you a letter which I dare not address; but in the other
you will find the designation of the house to which you must carry
it along with your box, which will there be taken from you and not
trouble you any more."

"Alas!" said Silas, "I have every wish to believe you; but how is
it possible?  You open up to me a bright prospect, but, I ask you,
is my mind capable of receiving so unlikely a solution?  Be more
generous, and let me further understand your meaning."

The Doctor seemed painfully impressed.

"Boy," he answered, "you do not know how hard a thing you ask of
me.  But be it so.  I am now inured to humiliation; and it would be
strange if I refused you this, after having granted you so much.
Know, then, that although I now make so quiet an appearance -
frugal, solitary, addicted to study - when I was younger, my name
was once a rallying-cry among the most astute and dangerous spirits
of London; and while I was outwardly an object for respect and
consideration, my true power resided in the most secret, terrible,
and criminal relations.  It is to one of the persons who then
obeyed me that I now address myself to deliver you from your
burden.  They were men of many different nations and dexterities,
all bound together by a formidable oath, and working to the same
purposes; the trade of the association was in murder; and I who
speak to you, innocent as I appear, was the chieftain of this
redoubtable crew."

"What?" cried Silas.  "A murderer?  And one with whom murder was a
trade?  Can I take your hand?  Ought I so much as to accept your
services?  Dark and criminal old man, would you make an accomplice
of my youth and my distress?"

The Doctor bitterly laughed.

"You are difficult to please, Mr. Scuddamore," said he; "but I now
offer you your choice of company between the murdered man and the
murderer.  If your conscience is too nice to accept my aid, say so,
and I will immediately leave you.  Thenceforward you can deal with
your trunk and its belongings as best suits your upright
conscience."

"I own myself wrong," replied Silas.  "I should have remembered how
generously you offered to shield me, even before I had convinced
you of my innocence, and I continue to listen to your counsels with
gratitude."

"That is well," returned the Doctor; "and I perceive you are
beginning to learn some of the lessons of experience."

"At the same time," resumed the New-Englander, "as you confess
yourself accustomed o this tragical business, and the people to
whom you recommend me are your own former associates and friends,
could you not yourself undertake the transport of the box, and rid
me at once of its detested presence?"

"Upon my word," replied the Doctor, "I admire you cordially.  If
you do not think I have already meddled sufficiently in your
concerns, believe me, from my heart I think the contrary.  Take or
leave my services as I offer them; and trouble me with no more
words of gratitude, for I value your consideration even more
lightly than I do your intellect.  A time will come, if you should
be spared to see a number of years in health of mind, when you will
think differently of all this, and blush for your to-night's
behaviour."

So saying, the Doctor arose from his chair, repeated his directions
briefly and clearly, and departed from the room without permitting
Silas any time to answer.

The next morning Silas presented himself at the hotel, where he was
politely received by Colonel Geraldine, and relieved, from that
moment, of all immediate alarm about his trunk and its grisly
contents.  The journey passed over without much incident, although
the young man was horrified to overhear the sailors and railway
porters complaining among themselves about the unusual weight of
the Prince's baggage.  Silas travelled in a carriage with the
valets, for Prince Florizel chose to be alone with his Master of
the Horse.  On board the steamer, however, Silas attracted his
Highness's attention by the melancholy of his air and attitude as
he stood gazing at the pile of baggage; for he was still full of
disquietude about the future.

"There is a young man," observed the Prince, "who must have some
cause for sorrow."

"That," replied Geraldine, "is the American for whom I obtained
permission to travel with your suite."

"You remind me that I have been remiss in courtesy," said Prince
Florizel, and advancing to Silas, he addressed him with the most
exquisite condescension in these words:- "I was charmed, young sir,
to be able to gratify the desire you made known to me through
Colonel Geraldine.  Remember, if you please, that I shall be glad
at any future time to lay you under a more serious obligation."

And he then put some questions as to the political condition of
America, which Silas answered with sense and propriety.

"You are still a young man," said the Prince; "but I observe you to
be very serious for your years.  Perhaps you allow your attention
to be too much occupied with grave studies.  But, perhaps, on the
other hand, I am myself indiscreet and touch upon a painful
subject."

"I have certainly cause to be the most miserable of men," said
Silas; "never has a more innocent person been more dismally
abused."

"I will not ask you for your confidence," returned Prince Florizel.
"But do not forget that Colonel Geraldine's recommendation is an
unfailing passport; and that I am not only willing, but possibly
more able than many others, to do you a service."

Silas was delighted with the amiability of this great personage;
but his mind soon returned upon its gloomy preoccupations; for not
even the favour of a Prince to a Republican can discharge a
brooding spirit of its cares.

The train arrived at Charing Cross, where the officers of the
Revenue respected the baggage of Prince Florizel in the usual
manner.  The most elegant equipages were in waiting; and Silas was
driven, along with the rest, to the Prince's residence.  There
Colonel Geraldine sought him out, and expressed himself pleased to
have been of any service to a friend of the physician's, for whom
he professed a great consideration.

"I hope," he added, "that you will find none of your porcelain
injured.  Special orders were given along the line to deal tenderly
with the Prince's effects."