I
will drive over from Yarleys in time for dinner to-morrow. Perhaps you
will say so to Barbara."
"She will be glad, I am sure," answered Mr. Haswell, "for she told
me the other day that she wants to consult you about some outdoor
theatricals that she means to get up in July."
"In July!" answered Alan with a little laugh. "I wonder where I shall be
in July."
Then came another pause, which seemed to affect even Sir Robert's
nerves, for abandoning the papers, he walked down the room till he came
to the golden object that has been described, and for the second time
that day stood there contemplating it.
"This thing is yours, Vernon," he said, "and now that our relations are
at an end, I suppose that you will want to take it away. What is its
history? You never told me."
"Oh! that's a long story," answered Alan in an absent voice. "My uncle,
who was a missionary, brought it from West Africa. I rather forget the
facts, but Jeekie, my negro servant, knows them all, for as a lad my
uncle saved him from sacrifice, or something, in a place where they
worship these things, and he has been with us ever since. It is a fetish
with magical powers and all the rest of it.
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