"I saw the advertisement in the _Cape Times_, and, concluding that
something was wrong, came down here. What is it?" he continued, sinking
lazily into a chair by my side.
"The advertisement?" I gasped. "I--I don't understand you."
"Your advertisement was addressed to Jean Montbazon, your humble and
obedient servant, who shared your lot at La Nouvelle, and who escaped
with you."
"What?" I cried. "Is that true?"
"I think, _mon cher ami_, you must have taken leave of your senses, as
madame declares you have. Come, now, what's the matter?"
"Are--are you really Jean Montbazon?"
"That's my baptismal cognomen, though Fred Norton suits me better just
now."
"Look here," I said earnestly: "I admit I'm not quite myself; indeed, I
have forgotten everything. Tell me how we escaped, and why I am so
rich, while you are my secretary."
The man looked at me incredulously, remarking, "_Ma foi_! I thought you
were a bit vacant before you left Johannesburg so mysteriously, but you
now seem stark mad. It would take a long time to recount all our
adventures, and some would be rather unpleasant reminiscences. You were
sent to penal servitude for life for murder, and I for forgery. We were
pals in the same labour-gang, and one day, finding an open boat upon the
beach, we resolved to escape, and embarked. In the boat was a keg of
water and a barrel of biscuits, which sufficed to keep body and soul
together until, after a terrible voyage lasting many days, we ran ashore
near Port Curtis, in Queensland. Having regained our freedom, we
tramped to the gold diggings, and worked together for about a year. You
had extraordinary luck, and soon became rich, while I was often obliged
to exist upon your charity. In a year, however, an unfortunate incident
occurred at our camp at Gum Tree Gulch. A man who was known to have a
quantity of dust in his belt was found dead, with an ugly wound upon his
head; and, in consequence of this, Australia became too warm for you and
I. Therefore we left the camp hurriedly one night, without wishing
adieu to our comrades, and came here, to South Africa, to try our luck.
As usual, your good fortune did not desert you. Already rich, you
bought some big claims in the Randt, and worked them with almost
incredible results. Then the boom came."
"And how did that affect me?"
"You had previously married a wealthy woman before the gold fever set
in. When the boom came, you sold both her property and yours at such
prices that within three weeks you were almost a millionaire."
"What am I now?" I asked, amazed at this remarkable story.
"You are owner of two of the richest gold workings in the Transvaal, and
I--always a Lazarus--am your confidential secretary. Most confidential,
I assure you," he added, smiling. "The master a murderer; the servant a
forger!"
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Having thus filled up the long blank in my memory, I did not rest until
I had satisfactorily accounted for the events of that fateful night.
Subsequently I discovered that the violent blow on my head, received in
the accident, had produced such an effect on my brain as to render
oblivious all the events of my past. From that moment I commenced a
second life. One of my fellow-passengers, noticing my injury, was
endeavouring to steal the box of bullion, when I shot him dead with my
revolver. Afterwards, when I had recovered consciousness, I opened the
box, and, secreting part of the money in my pockets, tried to get away
unobserved. But I was arrested, tried for murder, and transported. The
rest is known.
At my trial I refused to give any account of myself, for the simple
reason that I remembered nothing. My mind was an absolute blank. I had
lived an entirely different life for ten years, until I accidentally
struck my head a violent blow against the corner of a mantelshelf in my
drawing-room, causing the memory of my earlier life to return as
suddenly as it had fled, and thus leaving a gap of ten years for me to
fill.
Mine was an extraordinary case; but, as I afterwards discovered, my
duality of brain was by no means unprecedented. Such vagaries of the
mind, although rare, are known to medical science.
When, a week afterwards, I returned to Johannesburg--that dusty, noisy
City of Mammon--Lena welcomed me warmly. The same evening, after I had
explained to her the cause of my sudden disappearance and apparent
insanity, she went to her room, and on her return handed me a faded blue
envelope, secured by the official seal of the Bank of England.
"This," she said, "you asked me to keep for you, on the day we were
married."
I glanced at the superscription, and recognised the handwriting. It
contained the lost bank-notes!
Placing them in the fire, I watched the flames consume them, and from
that night I commenced life afresh.
Jean is my secretary no longer. I effected a compromise with him, and
at the present moment, owing to his shrewd business tact, combined with
successful speculation, he is one of the most prosperous promoters of
the South African mining companies in the City of London.