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It was three days later that the Cowrie fell in with H.M. sloop-of-war Shorewater,
through whose wireless Lord Greystoke soon got in communication with London.
Thus he learned that which filled his and his wife's heart with joy and
thanksgiving--little Jack was safe at Lord Greystoke's town house.
It was not until they reached London that they learned the details of the
remarkable chain of circumstances that had preserved the infant unharmed.
It developed that Rokoff, fearing to take the child aboard the Kincaid by day, had
hidden it in a low den where nameless infants were harboured, intending to carry
it to the steamer after dark.
His confederate and chief lieutenant, Paulvitch, true to the long years of teaching
of his wily master, had at last succumbed to the treachery and greed that had
always marked his superior, and, lured by the thoughts of the immense ransom
that he might win by returning the child unharmed, had divulged the secret of its
parentage to the woman who maintained the foundling asylum. Through her he
had arranged for the substitution of another infant, knowing full well that never
until it was too late would Rokoff suspect the trick that had been played upon
him.
The woman had promised to keep the child until Paulvitch returned to England;
but she, in turn, had been tempted to betray her trust by the lure of gold, and so
had opened negotiations with Lord Greystoke's solicitors for the return of the
child.
Esmeralda, the old Negro nurse whose absence on a vacation in America at the
time of the abduction of little Jack had been attributed by her as the cause of the
calamity, had returned and positively identified the infant.
The ransom had been paid, and within ten days of the date of his kidnapping the
future Lord Greystoke, none the worse for his experience, had been returned to
his father's home.
And so that last and greatest of Nikolas Rokoff's many rascalities had not only
miserably miscarried through the treachery he had taught his only friend, but it
had resulted in the arch-villain's death, and given to Lord and Lady Greystoke a
peace of mind that neither could ever have felt so long as the vital spark remained
in the body of the Russian and his malign mind was free to formulate new
atrocities against them.
Rokoff was dead, and while the fate of Paulvitch was unknown, they had every
reason to believe that he had succumbed to the dangers of the jungle where last
they had seen him--the malicious tool of his master.
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