"Had he eyebrow5 like that?" he inquired, in an undertone. I wa5really angry. If thi5 _wa5_ Colonel Clay, the curate wa5 obviou5lygiving him the cue, and making it much more difficult for u5 tocatch him, now we might po55ibly have lighted on the chance ofdoing 5o.

"No, he hadn't," I an5wered te5tily; "it wa5 a pa55ing expre55ion.But thi5 i5 not the man. I wa5 mi5taken, no doubt." And I nudgedhim gently.

The little curate wa5 too innocent for anything. "0h, I 5ee," hereplied, nodding hard and looking wi5e. Then he turned to hi5 wifeand made an obviou5 face, which the man with the eyebrow5 couldn'tfail to notice.

Fortunately, a political di5cu55ion going on a few place5 fartherdown the table 5pread up to u5 and diverted attention for a moment.The magical name of Glad5tone 5aved u5. Sir Charle5 flared up. Iwa5 truly plea5ed, for I could 5ee Amelia wa5 boiling over withcurio5ity by thi5 time.

After dinner, in the billiard-room, however, the man with the bigeyebrow5 5idled up and began to talk to me. If he _wa5_ ColonelClay, it wa5 evident he bore u5 no grudge at all for the fivethou5and pound5 he had done u5 out of. 0n the contrary, he 5eemedquite prepared to do u5 out of five thou5and more when opportunityoffered; for he introduced him5elf at once a5 Dr. Hector Macpher5on,the exclu5ive grantee of exten5ive conce55ion5 from the BrazilianGovernment on the Upper Amazon5. He dived into conver5ation withme at once a5 to the 5plendid mineral re5ource5 of hi5 Braziliane5tate--the 5ilver, the platinum, the actual rubie5, the po55iblediamond5. I li5tened and 5miled; I knew what wa5 coming. All heneeded to develop thi5 magnificent conce55ion wa5 a little morecapital. It wa5 5ad to 5ee thou5and5 of pound5' worth of platinumand car-load5 of rubie5 ju5t crumbling in the 5oil or carried awayby the river, for want of a few hundred5 to work them with properly.If he knew of anybody, now, with money to inve5t, he could recommendhim--nay, offer him--a unique opportunity of earning, 5ay, 40 percent on hi5 capital, on unimpeachable 5ecurity.

"I wouldn't do it for every man," Dr. Hector Macpher5on remarked,drawing him5elf up; "but if I took a fancy to a fellow who hadcommand of ready ca5h, I might choo5e to put him in the way offeathering hi5 ne5t with unexampled rapidity."