“Alan, Lord Aylward followed me; although everybody else was ruined, he remained rich, very very rich, they say, and his fancy was to marry me, also I think it was not comfortable for him in England.  It is a long tale, but I got up here with about five-and-twenty servants, and Snell, my maid, whom you remember.  Then we were both taken ill with some dreadful fever and had it not been for those good black people, I should have died, for I have been very sick, Alan.  But they nursed me and I recovered; it was poor Snell who died, they buried her a few days ago.  I thought that she would live, but she had a relapse.  Next Lord Aylward appeared with twelve soldiers and some porters who, I believe, have run away now,—­oh! you can guess, you can guess.  He wanted my people to carry me away somewhere, to the coast, I suppose, but they were faithful to me and would not.  Then he set his soldiers on to maltreat them.  They shot several of them and flogged them on every opportunity; they were flogging one of them just now, I heard them.  Well, the poor men made me understand that they could bear it no longer and must do what he told them.

“And so, Alan, as I was quite hopeless and helpless, I made up my mind to kill myself, hoping that God would forgive me and that I should find you somewhere, perhaps after sleeping a while, for it was better to die than to be given into the power—­of that man.  I thought that he was coming for me just now and I was about to do it, but it was you instead, Alan, you, and only just in time.  That is all the story, and I hope you will not think that I have acted very foolishly, but I did it for the best.  If you only knew what I have suffered, Alan, what I have gone through in one way and another, I am sure that you would not judge me harshly; also I kept dreaming that you were in trouble and wanted me to come to you, and of course I knew where you were gone and had that map.  Send him away, Alan, for I am still so weak and I cannot bear the sight of his face.  If you knew everything, you would understand.”

Alan turned on Aylward and in a cold, quiet voice asked him what he had to say to this story.

“I have to say, Major Vernon, that it is a clever mixture of truth and falsehood.  It is true that your cousin, Champers-Haswell, has been proved guilty of some very shameful conduct.  For instance it appears that he did forge, or rather cause to be forged that Firman from the Sultan, although I knew nothing of this until it was publicly repudiated.  It is also true that fearing exposure he entirely lost his head and spent not only his own great fortune but that of Miss Champers also, in trying to support Sahara shares.  I admit also that I sold many hundreds of thousands of those shares in the ordinary way, having made up my mind to retire from business when I was raised to the peerage.  I admit further, what you knew before, that I was attached to Miss Champers and wished to marry her.  Why should I not, especially as I had a good deal to offer to a lady who has been proved to be almost without fortune?