I have read the MS.

called 'Marie,' and certainly am of the opinion that it ought to be published, for I think it a strange and moving tale of a great love--full, moreover, of forgotten history.
"That named 'Child of Storm' also seems very interesting as a study of savage life, and the others may be the same; but my eyes are troubling me so much that I have not been able to decipher them.

I hope, however, that I may be spared long enough to see them in print.
"Poor old Allan Quatermain.

It is as though he had suddenly reappeared from the dead! So at least I thought as I perused these stories of a period of his life of which I do not remember his speaking to me.
"And now my responsibility in this matter is finished and yours begins.
Do what you like about the manuscripts." "George Curtis." As may be imagined, I, the Editor, was considerably astonished when I received this letter and the accompanying bundle of closely-written MSS.
To me also it was as though my old friend had risen from the grave and once more stood before me, telling some history of his stormy and tragic past in that quiet, measured voice that I have never been able to forget.
The first manuscript I read was that entitled "Marie." It deals with Mr.
Quatermain's strange experiences when as a very young man he accompanied the ill-fated Pieter Retief and the Boer Commission on an embassy to the Zulu despot, Dingaan.

This, it will be remembered, ended in their massacre, Quatermain himself and his Hottentot servant Hans being the sole survivors of the slaughter.