visited my kitchen, and the servants have entertained him. Yesterday morning, it appears, while I was absent, he had the audacity to borrow my gun to go duck-shooting. At the end of two or three hours he returned with two ducks and-the gun.'

'That was, at least, honest.'

'Yes-but! That fool of a girl says that, as he handed back the gun, he told her it was all right, and that he had loaded it up again to save the master trouble.'

I think I showed my concern in my face, for he added, hastily: 'It was only duck-shot; a few wouldn't hurt him! Nevertheless, we both walked on in silence for a

moment.

'I thought the gun kicked a little,' he said at last, musingly; but the idea of— Hallo! what's this?'

He stopped before the hollow where I had first seen my Tramp. It was deserted, but on the mosses there were spots of blood and fragments of an old gown, bloodstained, as if used for bandages. I looked at it closely it was the gown intended for the consumptive wife of my friend, the Tramp.

But my host was already nervously tracking the bloodstains that on rock, moss, and boulder were steadily leading toward the sea. When I overtook him at last on the shore, he was standing before a flat-rock, on which lay a bundle I recognised, tied up in a handkerchief, and a crooked grape-vine stick.

'He may have come here to wash his wounds-salt is a styptic,' said my host, who had recovered his correct precision of statement.

P

I said nothing, but looked toward the sea.

Whatever secret lay hid in its breast, it kept it fast. Whatever its calm eyes had seen that summer night, it gave no reflection now. It lay there passive, imperturbable, and reticent. But my friend, the Tramp, was gone.

211

THE MAN FROM SOLANO.

He came toward me out of an opera lobby, between the acts, a figure as remarkable as anything in the performance. His clothes, no two articles of which were of the same colour, had the appearance of having been purchased and put on only an hour or two before,—a fact more directly established by the clothes-dealer's ticket which still adhered to his coat-collar, giving the number, size, and general dimensions of that garment somewhat obtrusively to an uninterested public. His trousers had a straight line down each leg, as if he had been born flat but had since developed; and there was another crease down his back, like those figures children cut out of folded paper.

I

may add that there was no consciousness of this in his face, which was good-natured, and, but for a certain squareness in the angle of his lower jaw, utterly uninteresting and commonplace.

'You disremember me,' he said, briefly, as he extended his hand, but I'm from Solano, in Californy. I met you there in the spring of '57. I was tendin' sheep, and you was burnin' charcoal.'

There was not the slightest trace of any intentional rudeness in the reminder. It was simply a statement of fact, and as such to be accepted.

'What I hailed ye for was only this,' he said, after I had shaken hands with him. 'I saw you a minnit ago standin' over in yon box-chirpin' with a lady-a young lady, peart and pretty. Might you be telling me her

name?'

I gave him the name of a certain noted belle of a neighbouring city, who had lately stirred the hearts of the metropolis, and who was especially admired by the brilliant and fascinating young Dashboard, who stood beside me.

The Man from Solano mused for a moment, and then said, 'Thet's so! thet's the name! It's the same gal!'

'You have met her, then?' I asked, in surprise.

'Ye-es,' he responded slowly: 'I met her about fower months ago. She'd bin makin' a tour of Californy with some friends, and I first saw her aboard the cars this side of Reno. She lost her baggage checks, and I found them on the floor and gave 'em back to her, and she thanked me. I reckon now it would be about the square thing to go over thar and sorter recognise her.' He stopped a moment, and looked at us inquiringly.

My dear sir,' struck in the brilliant and fascinating young Dashboard, if your hesitation proceeds from any doubt as to the propriety of your attire, I beg you to dismiss it from your mind at once. The tyranny of custom, it is true, compels your friend and myself to dress peculiarly, but I assure you nothing could be finer than the way that the olive green of your coat melts in the delicate yellow of your cravat, or the pearl grey of your trousers blends with the bright blue of your waistcoat, and lends

additional brilliancy to that massive oroid watch-chain which you wear.'

To my surprise, the Man from Solano did not strike him. He looked at the ironical Dashboard with grave earnestness, and then said quietly :

'Then I reckon you wouldn't mind showin' me in thar?'

Dashboard was, I admit, a little staggered at this. But he recovered himself, and bowing ironically, led the way to the box. I followed him and the Man from Solano.

Now, the belle in question happened to be a gentlewoman- -descended from gentlewomen-and after Dashboard's ironical introduction, in which the Man from Solano was not spared, she comprehended the situation instantly. To Dashboard's surprise she drew a chair to her side, made the Man from Solano sit down, quietly turned her back on Dashboard, and in full view of the brilliant audience and the focus of a hundred lorgnettes, entered into conversation with him.

Here, for the sake of romance, I should like to say he became animated, and exhibited some trait of excellence, -some rare wit or solid sense. But the fact is he was dull

He persisted in keeping the

and stupid to the last degree. conversation upon the subject of the lost baggage-checks, and every bright attempt of the lady to divert him failed signally. At last, to everybody's relief, he rose, and leaning over her chair, said:—

'I calklate to stop over here some time, miss, and you and me bein' sorter strangers here, maybe when there's any show like this goin' on you'll let me