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PREFACE.
IT has been my intention from the first to take this opportunity of stating that, if I am indebted to any previous work for the central idea of a stolen manuscript, such obligation should be ascribed to a short tale, published some time ago in one of the Christmas numbers—the only story upon the subject which I have read at present.
It was the story of a German student who, having found in the library of his university an old scientific manuscript, by a writer long since dead and forgotten, produced it as his own; and it is so probable that the recollection of this incident became quite unconsciously the germ of the present book that, although the matter is not of general importance, I feel it only fair to mention it here.
I trust, nevertheless, that it is not necessary to insist upon any claim to the average degree of originality; for if the book does not bear the traces of honest and independent work, that is a defect which is scarcely likely to be removed by the most eloquent and argumentative of prefaces.
CONTENTS.
| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
| [PREFACE.] | Preface | |
| [I.] | An Intercessor | 1 |
| [II.] | A Last Walk | 15 |
| [III.] | Good-bye | 23 |
| [IV.] | Malakoff Terrace | 36 |
| [V.] | Neighbours | 52 |
| [VI.] | So Near and yet so Far | 64 |
| [VII.] | In the Fog | 69 |
| [VIII.] | Bad News | 82 |
| [IX.] | A Turning-point | 90 |
| [X.] | Repente Turpissimus | 103 |
| [XI.] | Revolt | 110 |
| [XII.] | Launched | 124 |
| [XIII.] | A 'Thorn and Flower Piece' | 133 |
| [XIV.] | In the Spring | 148 |
| [XV.] | Harold Caffyn makes a Discovery | 158 |
| [XVI.] | A Change of Front | 170 |
| [XVII.] | In which Mark makes an Enemy and recovers a Friend | 177 |
| [XVIII.] | A Dinner Party | 186 |
| [XIX.] | Dolly's Deliverance | 194 |
| [XX.] | A Declaration—of War | 197 |
| [XXI.] | A Parley with the Enemy | 208 |
| [XXII.] | Striking the Trail | 216 |
| [XXIII.] | Piano Practice | 221 |
| [XXIV.] | A Meeting in Germany | 232 |
| [XXV.] | Mabel's Answer | 240 |
| [XXVI.] | Visits of Ceremony | 251 |
| [XXVII.] | Clear Sky—and a Thunderbolt | 256 |
| [XXVIII.] | Mark Knows the Worst | 262 |
| [XXIX.] | On Board the 'Coromandel' | 273 |
| [XXX.] | The Way of Transgressors | 288 |
| [XXXI.] | Agag | 301 |
| [XXXII.] | At Wastwater | 311 |
| [XXXIII.] | In Suspense | 323 |
| [XXXIV.] | On the Laufenplatz | 335 |
| [XXXV.] | Missed Fire | 345 |
| [XXXVI.] | Little Rifts | 349 |
| [XXXVII.] | Mark Accepts a Disagreeable Duty | 358 |
| [XXXVIII.] | Harold Caffyn Makes a Palpable Hit | 366 |
| [XXXIX.] | Caffyn Springs His Mine | 383 |
| [XL.] | The Effects of an Explosion | 401 |
| [XLI.] | A Final Victory | 420 |
| [XLII.] | From the Grave | 435 |
| [CONCLUSION.] | Conclusion | 437 |