"May I ask when that was?" he asked, with apparent unconcern. "Five years ago. I was the agent for conveying to him a large sum in securities bequeathed him by my uncle, to whom he had rendered a great service." "Indeed! I am most glad to see you, sir. I wish my brother-in-law were alive to give you personal welcome." "When--did he die?" "But a short time after you met him. He died instantly--of heart disease." "He left a wife and child, did he not?" "He left a wife and two children." "And they live?" "Yes." "I wish I could see them." Nicholas Walton was perplexed and alarmed. If the stranger should see Mrs. Baker, his elaborate scheme would fall to the ground and he would be called upon for an explanation. "Do you remain long in the city?" he asked. "I go to Havana in three days. Business of importance, not to mention the sickness of my brother, calls me there." "Ah!" said the merchant, relieved. "You will have to defer seeing Mrs. Baker, then." "I thought she might live near by," said Filippo Novarro, for such was the name he gave. "Two years ago she removed to Minnesota," said the merchant, with fluent falsehood. "Her son, however, is travelling in Europe." "That, at least, will look as if she retained her fortune," he said to himself. "Then I must not hope to meet her," said Novarro. "When you write, will you give her my profound respects?" "With pleasure, Señor Novarro," said Walton, briskly. "Can I be of any service to you personally?" "Thank you, sir, no. I shall be very busy till I leave the city." "Then let me express my pleasure in meeting you," said Walton, offering his hand. "The pleasure is mutual, Mr. Walton, I assure you," said the stranger, bowing low. "Thank Heaven, I have got rid of you," said Walton to himself, wiping the perspiration from his brow. "But shall I always be as lucky?" CHAPTER XVI. ON BOARD THE PARTHIA. "Am I really on the Atlantic, bound for Europe?" said Ben to himself, as he paced the deck of the Parthia, then several hours out. He found it hard to realize, for only a week before he had been in his quiet country home, wholly unconscious of the great change that fate had in store for him. He was not unfavorably affected by the new sea-life. Instead of making him sick, it only gave him a pleasant sense of exhilaration. With Major Grafton it was different. He was a very poor sailor. He was scarcely out of port before he began to feel dizzy, and was obliged to retire to his state-room. He felt almost irritated when he saw how much better Ben bore the voyage than he. "One would think you were an old sailor, instead of me," he said. "I have crossed the Atlantic a dozen times, and yet the first whiff of sea air lays me on my back, while you seem to enjoy it." "So I do at present," answered Ben; "but perhaps my time will come to be sick. Can't I do something to make you comfortable?"