“Well, Travers saved my life. He beat off my assailants, and nursing my wounds brought me back to life.
“I have felt ever since that I owed him a debt which could not be fully repaid. At that time I could make no return for the service.
“Jim and I drifted through the gold fields together. Then I lost track of him, and until the other day I have not seen or heard from him.
“But I now find that it is in my power to give him assistance, in fact to partly pay the debt I owe him. This brings us to the matter in hand.
“Six months ago it seems that Jim who is now a man of great wealth, still a bachelor and for a few years past living at a fashionable hotel in New York went to his club. When he returned in the evening he found a note worded like this:”
Mr. Reade laid a note upon the table, Frank read it:
“Dear Travers:—I would like to see you to-night upon a very important matter. Will you meet me in twenty minutes at the cafe on your corner. I must see you, so be sure and come.
“A Friend.”
“Of course Jim wondered at the note, but he did not know of an enemy in the world, so he felt perfectly safe in keeping the appointment. He started for the cafe.
“The night was dark and misty, Jim walked along and had got near the cafe when somebody stepped out of a dark hallway and grasped his arm.