“This moment.”

“From—?”

“No matter where from, at present.  Enough that I am here.”  The servant had retired, and the closed door was locked.  “But there is one thing I don’t just like.”

“What is that?”

“You penetrated my disguise too easily.”

“I expected you, and knew, when inquired for, by whom I was wanted.”

“That as far as it goes.  But would you have known me if I had passed you in the street?”

The man named Leach took a long, close survey of the other, and then replied—­

“I think not, for you are shockingly disfigured.  How did you manage to get that deep gash across your forehead?”

“It occurred in an affray with one of the natives; I came near losing my life.”

“A narrow escape, I should say.”

“It was.  But I had the satisfaction of shooting the bloody rascal through the heart.”  And a grin of savage pleasure showed the man’s white teeth gleaming below the jetty moustache.—­“Well, you see I am here,” he added, “boldly venturing on dangerous ground.”

“So I see.  And for what?  You say that I can serve you again; and I am in New Orleans to do your bidding.”

“You can serve me, David,” was answered, with some force of expression.  “In fact, among the large number of men with whom I have had intercourse, you are the only one who has always been true to me, and” (with a strongly-uttered oath) “I will never fail you, in any extremity.”

“I hope never to put your friendship to any perilous test,” replied the other, smiling.  “But say on.”

“I can’t give that girl up.  Plague on her bewitching face! it has wrought upon me a kind of enchantment.  I see it ever before me as a thing of beauty.  David! she must be mine at any sacrifice!”

“Who?  Markland’s pretty daughter?”

“Yes.”

“Better start some other game,” was bluntly answered.  “Your former attempt to run this down came near ruining every thing.”

“No danger of that now.  The ingots are all safe;” and the man gave a shrug.

“Lyon—­”

“My name is Falkner.  Don’t forget it, if you please!” The speaker contracted his brows.

“Falkner, then.  What I want to say is this:  Let well enough alone.  If the ingots are safe, permit them to remain so.  Don’t be foolhardy enough to put any one on the scent of them.”

“Don’t be troubled about that.  I have sacrificed too much in gaining the wealth desired ever to hold it with a careless or relaxing grasp.  And yet its mere possession brings not the repose of mind, the sense of independence, that were so pleasingly foreshadowed.  Something is yet lacking to make the fruition complete.  I want a companion; and there is only one, in the wide world, who can be to me what I desire.”

“Fanny Markland?”

“Yes.”

“You wish to make her your wife?”

“She is too pure to be happy in any other relation.  Yes; I wish to gain her for my bride.”