the wind howled and shrieked all round the dwelling, the ceaseless thunder of breaking waves showed that these two miserables were living on the brink of some sea-washed cliff, while the brief intervals and lulls in the grinding storm were filled with the plaintive moan of wind-vibrating wires and stays. A glance round the hovel, and а stranger would have been stupefied. The light was good and brightwell it might be, for it was electric. Electricity in such a dwelling! And look on the shelves against the wall. Instruments instruments the most modern and delicate that science could manufacture. an hour the machine ticked on monotonously, and then the message ended. One of the men pulled an old oilpapered umbrella out of the corner, opened the creaking door, and dived into the blizzard without. He was responsible for the gas-engine. His comrade filled a longstemmed pipe with a bowl just a quarter the size of a girl's thimble. He picked up a glowing coal with the primitive firetongs. In three whiffs his smoke was done, and then, turning to the shelf again, he switched on the current and touched the key. With a smack like a bullet flattening against a wall the great spark cracked out, filling the room with a white-blue glare. And, long and short, short and long, in the midst of its spluttering noise the message went. Over sixty miles across that stormy sea had it come. It was now going seventy miles through space to the receiving-station at Togo's rendezvous. In two hours the Admiralty in Tokio would know how two destroyers had steamed into the roadstead "That is it-that is our own at Port Arthur and disabled -not the confounded Russian." another Russian battleship. His companion rose and And when this story was joined him, and together they given to the public, the two pored over the long strip of human instruments who had paper as the symbols were made its amazing passage ticked off on it at the rate of possible, in all ignorance of ten to fifteen words a minute. the news itself, would probAll the men could tell was ably be sitting over their that it was their own cipher. charcoal fire perched on the Above that they had no know- spur of the far-off Korean ledge, beyond the fact that as rock, talking of their beautiful soon as they received the final Japan, and comparing it with group the message was to be the paucity of their time-being transmitted farther. For half surroundings. A bell rang,-electric too, and presently a wheel began to click, slowly but deliberately. If you had closed your eyes you could have imagined that you were in your club listening to the mechanism that gives you the latest quotation from the Bourse. Slowly the instrument ticked. Both men listened, nodding out the dots and dashes as they read them. Then one of them jumped to his feet. FOR the first time since he had been compelled to share the dingy bedroom at the Imperial International Hotel, Wilmot entered it without feeling that spasm of depression and repugnance that always came on the waft of stuffy uncleanly air that followed on the opening of the door. As he removed his clothes, and made preparations for the sluice down that was the nearest approach to a tubbing the wretched place afforded, he regarded their increasing shabbiness with genuine amusement. He felt something of the pride of external disreputability that induces some millionaires to affect seedy raiment. Very shortly he would be in a position to gratify any whim in matters sartorial, and he could well afford to despise the snobbery that gauged a man by the blatant advertisement of expensive tailorware. It was a new and novel experience, for up till that day he had been compelled to make concession to vulgar prejudice in this respect, and had often felt himself secretly envying, and even respecting, the young lions of Judah who seemed to enjoy the monopoly of well-cut clothes in Johannesburg. But a new day had dawned; he was discarding the old for the new, and, with his old clothes, he felt that he was casting away that sick heartache, the anxious thought for the morrow, that during the past month or two had robbed life of its zest, and almost convinced him, as it often does the young and inexperienced, that the only true philosophy of life is that of the pessimist. Today he laughed at his past folly as he dressed himself carefully, resolved to lunch at the Grand Hotel, if only to place himself once more in touch with the prosperous crowd with whom he had ruffled it in the days of his exuberant greenness six months before. The excellent meal put him in a sympathetic humour with all the world, and within a few hours he had assimilated the spirit of happy-go-lucky optimism that was in the rarefied atmosphere of the Rand. And was there not ample justification for the faith in luck that was the creed of every adventurer who waited on it? Again and again during his short experience had he not seen the shabby cadger for a cheap drink suddenly discarding beer for champagne on the strength of a lucky stroke? The record of almost every magnate of the day was a confirmation of the pleasant theory that to every man upon the Reef luck cometh soon or late. This faith it was that alone When Wilmot struck a balance next morning he was little bit surprised and ashamed to find that he had reduced his capital account of nine pounds to less than half. He carried out his plan of atonement next day by denying himself several indulgences on which he had set his heart, and quietened his conscience with the reflection that, after all, he had been spending his own money, for Hartley's contribution was part of the premium paid for admission to a lucrative partnership. enabled the unfortunate, and in such natures as his, when often incapable, ne'er-do-well to Fortune smiles, impelled him sleep soundly while his land- to seek out and play the lord, with overdue board bill, generous host to one like himrapped angrily at the door, self, but who was still waitand thickened his skin when ing on the turn of Fortune's the barman brutally refused to wheel. give credit for "just one more round." Whence or how the good thing was to come these waiters on the tide in the affairs of men had but the shadowiest notion. It depressed or discouraged them little to know that they had neither part nor lot in the moneymaking swim; it was sufficient that they were in the backwash of the current, into which the slightest change in the wind might sweep them, to race neck and neck with the foremost swimmers. So they waited on, while credit and clothes grew more threadbare, and looked on the luck of others as the subaltern notes the promotion of his senior, seeing in it a reminder that their turn was somehow brought a step nearer. The lunch was followed up by an expensive dinner from the best menu the town provided. It was true, Wilmot thought as he paid the waiter, Hartley had counselled strict prudence and economy; but surely the special circumstances warranted the extravagance? It was a Rand axiom that a stroke of luck should be celebrated by extra indulgence, particularly after a period of privation. He could and would atone by ascetic abstention from luxury during the coming week, but for this once he must "let go." And he did. The gregarious instinct that asserts itself Before the second day was over, Wilmot was provided with another confirmation of the comforting faith in his change of luck. Dale Ellis, the companion of his overnight celebration, looked him up, excited and boisterous, flourishing a bank draft for fifty pounds. "Always stick to your mother, old chap. It pays. The governor has chucked me and closed the loan department, but the old lady couldn't stand my tears. She's managed to scrape another fifty, unknown to the old man, and I'm a millionaire again for a week. Let's go out and see civilisation." "Don't forget that charity begins at home," Wilmot suggested. "Oh, that fiver you lent me. That's all right. Come with me and melt this bit of paper." They went to the bank together, and spent the rest of the day in melting the auriferous product of the draft. Ellis repaid the borrowed five pounds, and Wilmot felt the least he could do by way of recognising the honesty of the borrower was to pay for two dinners, and stalls at the theatre. Ellis reciprocated by buying five pounds' worth of tickets in the sweepstake on the forthcoming big race at Johannesburg, giving one to Wilmot; then spent ten pounds in replenishing his always opulent wardrobe, and called at a photographer's to make arrangements for an elaborate portrait of himself in riding costume on a polo pony. "Seven pounds a dozen is an awful price to pay for a photograph to give away," Ellis remarked, "but it's money well invested; it'll show the folks at home that I am apparently doing well. Never plead poverty to people you expect something from. To him that hath, much shall be given.' Wonderfully true book, the Bible." "Except when you want to borrow a bit," corrected Wilmot, who was young in the ways of the world. "That's where you make a mistake. When you want to borrow for absolute necessities, put on your best clothes and a half-crown cigar and ask for a hundred if twenty will do. Nobody believes in the shabby man who wants a sovereign; he's disreputable and done for. The man who asks for a hundred on his P. N. is respectable, and retains his self-respect. I'm going round to my hotel man to swagger this cash and this three-guinea panama hat and bluff him into letting his account stand over. If he thought I had nothing, he'd be adamant; but the sight of these quids and the bottle of champagne I shall stand him will soften his heart and dust his eyes.' Wilmot did not know, neither did Ellis tell him, that he had obtained the fifty pounds by working on the maternal sympathy, describing himself pathetically as on on the the verge of homelessness and starvation, unless he could conciliate a stony-hearted landlord; that profitable employment befitting a gentleman had been offered him, which he would have to decline unless he could make a presentable appearance, hinting that he was becoming positively unfit for decent society because of his increasing shabbiness, a plea he well knew would appeal to the feminine instinct almost as effectively as the picture of himself lying foodless and bedless in the gutter. Ellis was a magnificent specimen of the remittance-man, a species that is the byword of every British colony he infests and infects. He had, however, contrived to escape inclusion in that category, adroitly concealing his impecuniosity by consummate skill in the art of keeping up appearances. The same selfish audacity that enabled him him to bleed and befool a foolishly fond and confiding mother carried him gaily through Rand society. Destitute of any capacity of marketable value, and spurning the idea of work with the robust contempt of the hardened tramp, he somehow managed to keep afloat amid a set, financially superior, who, despite their shrewdness and keen scent for a fraud, accepted Ellis at his own valuation, partially convinced by the fact that he had not yet gone under. A couple of years as a frequenter of the fast resorts of the West End of London had qualified him for the rôle of leader and authority in a certain clique in Johannesburg, among whom his up-to-date manner, his faultless dressing, his man-of-the-world aplomb, and a remarkable versatility in the accomplishments that count for ability among "sportsmen," excited admiration, and made him a general favourite. His flamboyant Irish nature had the usual effect upon his duller associates, and no one knew comes here for the benefit of his health," was Ellis's favourite quotation; "so do all you can and whoever you can while you can. the The Johannesburg of that day presented a very limited range of rational amusement to men of the type of Wilmot and Ellis, and the social life appealed to them less. There was too much of the snobbery of the nouveau riche among women, too much transference of the office to the drawingroom among the men. Except in the German and upper class Jewish community, who were exclusive, and to a degree artistic, the graces of life were only known in the form of an occasional ostentatious dinner or dance; outdoor amusements were few and far between. The canteen or the bars of the better class hotels were still the principal resorts of the many who had not the entrée to the club, where a heavy entrancefee and a cliqueish ballot kept out all who had not the hallmark of a big banking account, or the means of helping others better than he that the man to increase theirs. There was, who can amuse and excel in therefore, little left but the the trifles admired by men can music-halls and an occasional always command a front place visit to the theatre, when a and the reputation of a "splen- fairly good company did fellow." He played upon sufficient attraction. Sport, his knowledge of human nature so called, was the universal for all it was worth, and Wil- panacea for ennui, and races mot was completely under his in being or in future, glove spell. Although at times the contests between third-rate gross selfishness and want of bruisers, cards and billiards, principle in the man outraged were sandwiched between much Wilmot's less cauterised con- bar-loafing and worship at the science, he was neither strong shrine of the Commissioner nor energetic enough to reproach or resent. "No one offered Street Hebe, who never before had occupied so exalted a |