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Then she rises majestically to her full height, spreads her arms, and utters a cry which is heard simultaneously at Cairo, at Zanzibar, and at Cape Town.

A terrible silence follows, broken only by the trembling of the mountain and the breathless panting of the three figures as each rears himself slowly to his feet.

The scene that followed may be more easily imagined than described.

Chapter XIV. ALL COMES OUT

It is time we went back to the scene on the cliff at Crocusville narrated in the opening chapter.

Peeler, the coastguardsman, after descending the cliff, resumed his ordinary avocations, and sent his daughter to a superior high school.

Hence her presence at the Duc’s ball and on the desert mountain.

The Duc de Septimominorelli (for such was the mysterious traveller) recoiled several hundred yards on finding himself confronted not only by the aged father of his now middle-aged Velvetina, but by the form of his old opponent the Marquis de Smellismelli.

“Aha!” said the latter, producing his plaster cast. “How do you find yourself, Sep, my boy?”

“Hot,” said Septimus, with characteristic coolness.

“Introduce me to the old gentleman,” said the detective.

“Peeler,” was the laconic reply.

It was Solomon’s turn to turn inquiringly to the lady.

She only bowed.

“I wish very much I had known this before. I have wasted fifty years over you,” said Solomon, in injured tones. “I must lose no more time if I am to detect anything. Good morning. Aha!

“Stay!” shouts Sep, in a voice of thunder. “It is I who have wasted fifty years running away from you. You owe me an apology, sirrah!”

The caitiff’s face underwent a kaleidoscopic change as these terrible words rant? in his ears. With the bound of of a wounded antelope he sprang to the summit of the nearest mountain, and stood there with arms erect against the sky, like a statue of Ajax.

“He don’t seem blooming, shiver my timbers if he do,” said old Peeler.

“We shall not meet again,” said Sep, grinding his teeth in his direction.

“Why should we be standing here in the sun?” said Velvetina. “Let us return to England.”

They returned the same evening.

Chapter XV. OMNIA VINCIT AMOR

Septimus Minor and Velvetina Peeler were married quietly at the Crocusville Cathedral.

The bride was given away by her father, Captain Peeler, R.N.

The company was select and the presents were costly.

Amongst the latter none attracted more attention or curiosity than an excellent plaster cast of a horse’s hoof, presented to the happy couple by the Marquis de Smellismelli and his grandson the Lord Mayor of London.

There were few knew its history; but it was eloquent in meaning for Mr and Mrs Septimus Minor, who have given it an honoured place on the mantelpiece of the second spare bedroom of their bijou residence in Pink Street.