"I wouldn't tell her if I were you," said the Jew significantly, "or she'll withdraw the light of her countenance, and then it will be all up with our burlesque." "Pooh, nonsense," replied Stewart, with an uneasy laugh. "I wonder who'll be Fenton's successor?" "Yourself." "Not I. I'm not far enough gone for that. Besides, I've no money." "True, except your anonymous five hundred, which would be nothing to Caprice. So, as she wants money, I expect it will be old Meddlechip." "But he's married." "True, O Sir Galahad," retorted Ezra sarcastically; "but he's an unholy old man for all that--she'll ensnare him, and we'll see how long it will take her to break the richest man in the Colonies." "Oh, the deuce take Kitty Marchurst and her affairs," said Keith impatiently. "I want to know who sent me this money?" "Better not ask," murmured Ezra. "Curiosity is a vice. Remember Adam and Eve, Bluebeard's wife, etcetera. Take the goods the gods bestow, and don't try to find out where they come from; but now you are rich, you'll be giving up the shop." "No, I'll stay on for a time till I find that the five hundred is really and truly mine. Who knows, some day it may take to itself wings and fly." "It certainly would with some young men," said Ezra; "but I don't think you are that sort." "You are right. I want to save up all my money for Eugénie." "Ah! you are going to marry her?" "When I get rich. Yes." "You won't marry her if Caprice can help it." "Why?" disbelievingly. "Because she's fallen in love with you, and her love, like the gifts of the Danaes, is fatal. "Rubbish. I'm not a child. Caprice will never take my heart from Eugénie." "Hercules," remarked Ezra musingly, "was a strong man; yet he became the slave of a woman. Solomon was a wise man--same result. My friend, you are neither Hercules nor Solomon, therefore--" Keith departed hurriedly. CHAPTER X. NABALL MAKES A DISCOVERY. When Kilsip undertook to educate Naball in the business of a detective, he gave him an epigrammatical piece of advice: "Cultivate curiosity." This golden rule Naball constantly followed, and found it of infinite service to him in his difficult profession. He was always on the lookout for queer cases, and when he discovered one that piqued his curiosity, he never rested until he found out all about it. The Red Indian follows the trail of his enemy by noting the most trivial signs, which to others with a less highly cultivated instinct would appear worthless. And Naball was a social Red Indian, following up the trail of a mystery by a constant attention to surrounding events. A casual observation, a fleeting expression, a scrap of paper--these were the sign-posts which led him to a satisfactory conclusion, and he never neglected any opportunity of exercising his faculties. By this constant practice he sharpened his senses in a wonderful degree, and cultivated to the highest extent the unerring instinct which he possessed in discovering crimes.