face-and checking his horses, he sat and stared at Stracey for a moment, then he called out:

"Hi! Hallo, there!"

Stracey stood for a moment, as if uncertain what he had better do; then, with another muttered oath, he went down the slope and up to the man.

"Why, Nolly!" he said, in his soft, slow voice. “How are you?"

The man addressed as Nolly was short and slight, indeed, scarcely above the height of a boy, and in appearance and garb looked, what he was, a horse-dealer. He was several other things besides, but horse-dealing was his avowed, respectable calling.

Ile was quite bald, the result of a gas-explosion which had blinded one eye, as well as depriving him of his hair. The other eye was fixed upon Stracey Froyte's blandly smiling face with an expression of surprise, anger, and satisfaction, nicely combined. It was an eye eloquent of low cunning, and the rest of Mr. Nolly's face matched it admirably.

"Why, it is you!" he said, with an oath. "You're a pretty mean kind of a fellow, Black, to give your pals the slip the way you did. What do you mean by it?"

Black was the alias by which Stracey had been known to the gang of which Nolly was a member.

Stracey's smile did not waver, and he replied as blandly as he had spoken before:

"I was sorry to leave you so suddenly, Nolly; but urgent business on the Continent called me away. I have only just returned, and I intended to look you up-"

"I daresay!" broke in Nolly, incredulously. "Tell that to the marines. You gave us the slip at an awkward_time, though it was convenient enough for you, I daresay. I suppose you know Jorkins and Smith got landed over that little business, and if we hadn't found a first-class counsel for them they'd have to do a bit?"

"I'm sorry," said Stracey.

"But I think I ventured to prophesy what would happen. I always told you that that

business was a dangerous one.

A great deal of caution is

necessary in dealing with cheques."

Nolly's one eye regarded him curiously.

"Oh," he said, succintly. "You didn't always seem to think so. You've dealt in cheques yourself, Mr. Black."

Stracey looked as if he did not understand; but, for all his self-command, his lip twitched slightly; and Nolly saw it and

laughed, a curious, husky, little laugh, which was not pleasant to listen to.

"You don't seem to remember. What about that cheque you drew on Lloyds'?"

Stracey smiled.

"I remember, quite well," he said. "That got through all right."

"So you may think!" retorted Nolly; "but you're wrong. It got stopped and returned. Oh, you may smile; but I know what I'm talking about; and I've every reason to know, for that cheque fell into my hands, Black; and I've got it now." Stracey's smile wavered and his sallow face grew rather pale.

"Indeed!" he said. "That's strange. How did you manage

"Never you mind," said Nolly, with a nod of the head. "I've got it, and that's all you need know."

"I shall be very pleased to redeem it," said Stracey, blandly.

"I daresay you would!" retorted Nolly. "But I haven't quite made up my mind to part with that cheque; though fifty pounds is fifty pounds.'

Ah, yes; I remember now," said Stracey. "That was the amount, I believe. Of course, I should be very pleased to pay you a fair interest." He smiled. "Even an unfair interest, if you insist upon it."

Nolly, with his head on one side, regarded him intently. "It looks as if you was pretty flush," he said. "What are you doing down here-what's your little game?"

Stracey shrugged his shoulders and smiled, but glanced around in a casual way: Kyra might come up at any moment and find him talking to this disreputable-looking fellow. "I've just run down for a breath of air," he said. for the day. What are you doing here? Good business, I hope?"

"Just

"I've come down to pick up a horse or two," said Nolly; "and have just bought these and am going to box 'em up to London. There's a public round the bend there; better come on and have a drink."

Stracey dared not refuse.

"Certainly," he said. "Just let me go back for my stick. I left it on the hill; and I'll join you at the inn."

Nolly looked at him uncertainly for a moment, and then he said:

"Honest injun? But you wouldn't be such a fool as to

try and give me the slip, seeing as you know what I've got.

"My dear Nolly, I haven't the least idea of giving you the slip; in fact, I'm delighted to see you. I'll be at the inn almost

Nolly, after another glance at him, nodded and rode on, and Stracey went back to the glen, where, in his confusion at seeing Nolly, he dropped his stick. He looked round for Kyra, and was relieved that she was not in sight. This chance meeting with his old associate was more than inconvenient. There were other matters beside the 66 stumer cheque which had fallen into Nolly's possession. Stracey had flattered himself that he had cut himself clear of the gang: it was very hard that just as the prospect of a life of luxury and ease was opening out before him he should be "spotted" by one of the worst of the old gang. But he would have to go to the inn, would have to be pleasant with the man; there was no doubt of that.

He cut across the glen, looking about him cautiously as he went, and reached the rustic public-house. Mr. Nolly was leaning against the door-way, smoking a short clay and superintending the watering of his two purchases. He nodded to Stracey, and led the way into the bar-parlour, and, Stracey following, called for drinks.

"Gin used to be your old tipple, Black, eh?" he said. "Still faithful to your old love, I suppose?"

Stracey smiled and repressed a shudder. It was some time since he had sat in a bar-parlour and drunk gin-and-water with a man of Nolly's class, and this sudden revival of his old habits jarred upon him.

"Here's luck!" said Nolly. "Close the door, my gel, will you? This gentleman and I don't like draughts. Now, Black, tell us all the news."

Stracey had prepared himself for the question, and lied with a bland fluency.

"Oh, there's not much," he said. "I had a bit of luck on the Continent, and made a little money, and I'm living on that until something turns up."

"Same old diggings, I suppose?" said Nolly.

Stracey had occupied a small room in Gray's Inn: he would have to take it on again, unless he could shake this man off by purchasing the cheque.

"Yes," he said; "the same old diggings; but I haven't been there very much."

"Well, I'm glad to see you again," said Nolly; "though

you did play it pretty low down, giving us the slip in the way you did. Why, me and Bessie couldn't half believe it, cspe cially Bessie. You don't ask after 'er: I suppose you've forgotten 'er?"

He looked at Stracey with a mixture of anger and wistfulness, and Stracey's shifty eyes evaded the look as he replied: "Oh, no, indeed, I haven't forgotten Miss Bessie. I've often thought of her and the pleasant times we've had together."

Nolly grunted, but as if he were reluctant to disbelieve the statement.

"Well, I wish she'd forgotten you," he said, with unflattering candour. "But I'm afraid she ain't. Look here, Black, you'd better look us up."

There was something of threat in the invitation, and Stracey's shifty glance wandered again; but he said, pleasantly enough and readily enough:

"Of course I will.

You're still at the old place?" "Yes," said Nolly. "The old shop, Whitehorse Lane, Pentonville. But you know it well enough," he added. Many's the cup of tea and bit of supper you've had with Bessie and me there; and she ain't forgot them times, if you have."

Stracey had not forgotten them, though he would like to have done so. He had been glad enough in the old days, when he was always hard up and sometimes well-nigh penniless, to accept the hospitality of the Nollys. A vision of a little back room, overlooking the dealer's yard, with a pretty, fair-haired girl sitting at the supper-table; of the steaming supper, of the glasses of gin-and-water, and pipes and cigars that followed, rose before him at that moment. But he did not regard the vision gratefully, but rather with reluctance and dislike. His prospects had changed since he had sat with the pretty, fair-haired Bessie, who had always been so glad to see him and to sit and talk with him.

"No, indeed, I've not forgotten," he said, "and I hope soon to renew my friendship with Miss Bessie and to spend some more pleasant times at the old place."

He said it so nicely, and feigned so well, that Nolly's face cleared.

"That's the style!" he said. "That's the way I like to hear a man talk. Never go back on your old friends! I'll tell Bessie I've met with you, and that you're coming to see us; and she'll be mighty pleased-though I ought not to give

her away for my gel and you was good friends, Black, weren't you?"

"The best of friends," responded Stracey, with well-assumed heartiness. "I shall be delighted to see her again and talk over old times."

He called for relays of gin-and-water and some cigars; and when they were brought, and the gin-and-water consumed, he rose and looked at his watch, and said, with an air of reluctance:

"Now, I'm afraid I must be going, Nolly. I'm sorry to say that I've got to go up to London by an earlier train than yours, or I'd go up with you.

"I didn't say what train I was going up by," said Nolly, a trifle suspiciously; "but they won't take these horses until the evening, and I like to go up with them.'

"I knew that," said Stracey, easily. "And now, as regards that cheque, my dear Nolly? What would you like to part with it for? Shall we say a hundred? That will leav you a good profit, I hope.'

"It would leave me a very good one," assented Nolly; but his lips came tightly together and his one eye fixed itself on Stracey's face with an expression of cunning which would have done credit to a jackdaw. "But I don't know that I'm in any hurry to part with that cheque. I've grown to be fond of it, as you might say. Anyway, we won't talk about it now; we'll put it off until we can chat it over when you drop in at Whitehorse Lane and have pot luck with us.

66

Certainly," assented Stracey, with an affectation of ease and cheerfulness. "And that won't be very long for us. And now I must be off. You'll remember me to Miss Bessie, and tell her how keenly I am looking forward to seeing her?"

He gave Nolly's monkey-like paw a hearty shake and slapped him on the back once or twice in quite an affectionate way, and left the inn with a smile, as if the meeting with his old friend had been as pleasant as it had been unexpected.

But the smile died away when he had got out of sight of Nolly's eye, which he knew was watching him from the window.

The meeting was an unfortunate one and one full of peril. Fate had stretched out a hand and dragged him back into the circle of his old, disreputable life. He had thought that he had buried the past; but it had risen again and was claiming him. But for that cheque he could have disowned this man Nolly and his daughter. could have set them at defiance; but