should escape.  But he bore the burden,—­and smiled.  He had always lived with the consciousness that such a burden was on him and might crush him at any time.  He had known that he had to run these risks.  He had told himself a thousand times that when the dangers came, dangers alone should never cow him.  He had always endeavoured to go as near the wind as he could, to avoid the heavy hand of the criminal law of whatever country he inhabited.  He had studied the criminal laws, so that he might be sure in his reckonings; but he had always felt that he might be carried by circumstances into deeper waters than he intended to enter.  As the soldier who leads a forlorn hope, or as the diver who goes down for pearls, or as...