“Can you go,” she said, after a moment's thought, “to St. Paul de Loanda for me?”

The man laughed.

“Yes,” he answered simply.

“At once—now?”

“Oh, yes,” with a sigh.

Already Jocelyn was writing something on a sheet of paper.

“Take this,” she said, “to the telegraph office at St. Paul de Loanda, and send it off at once. Here is money. You understand? I will pay you when you bring back the receipt. If you have been very quick, I will pay you well.”

That same evening a second messenger started northward after Maurice Gordon with a letter telling him to come back at once to Loango.

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CHAPTER XXIV. NEMESIS