"A bill at three months for a thousand pounds," said John quietly. "We may have such a bill out; but I should not gratify the curiosity of a stranger "

"May have? Why, the bill is accepted by yourself!" broke in the other coarsely.

"I know him now," whispered

is some devil's work afoot, then."

John to himself. "There

Though the sweat was on

his brow his face was calm; his heart, though sick and weary, was resolute whoever's foot should be placed upon his neck, he swore it should not be this man's foot.

"Let me look at the bill," said he quietly.

"Look at it, sir? What for? You have not so many thousand-pound bills out, I conclude, as not to be able to say "Yes" or "No" to my first question! Look at it? Well, so you shall; but not too close! I am not going to risk your snatching it out of my hand and throwing it into the fire!"

In his utter contempt and loathing of this man, John Milbank smiled. "What dull villains must such wretches be, to suppose honest men are like themselves," thought

he.

"Why, you don't mean to say it's all right?" cried his visitor, encouraged by John's quiet, which contrasted strangely with his own vehemence and indignation. "When a man has given money down for a thing like this".

"Did you give money down, sir?"

"Well, yes, I did; some money. There was value received, if you mean that. And if he'd tricked me-if this, I say, was waste-paper, well, I'd hang him! By Heaven, I would!"

"Whom would you hang?" "Never mind who; the dog

His name

who gave it me.
You know your handwriting,
paper out at arm's-length,

is not here; this is your name. I suppose." He held a slip of which John regarded attentively. "John Milbank: that is

plain enough, sir," he continued. "Is that worth a thousand pounds or not?"

"It is certainly not worth a thousand pounds."

"Then your brother shall lodge in jail to-night, as sure as his name is Richard."

"Or as yours is Dennis Blake."

"Well, what if it is? I came here thus disguised not for my own sake.

If you

"Of course not: it was for the sake of the money. found the bill all right, you would have gone away without your dear friend knowing that you had entertained the least suspicion of him. As it happens, you have made a slight mistake. The handwriting is my own."

"Then how can the bill be valueless? You don't mean to tell me that you are stumped out-bankrupt? The unprincipled villain! And he has got two hundred pounds of mine, unless he has lost it this afternoon. He shall disgorge it,

or

"One moment, Mr Blake," for the visitor had snatched up his hat, and was already at the door. "Business is not conducted quite so quickly as a game at short-whist. You jumped too much at conclusions. I never said the bill was worth nothing; I only said it was not worth a thousand pounds. You will discover that yourself when you try to discount it. The bank is shut for to-day; but I will give you a cheque for the same money as it would fetch, if you want to get rid of the bill."

"I very much want to get rid of it," answered Blake frankly. "I am all for ready money transactions. It was only because your brother was my friend, you see"

"I quite see, Mr Blake," interrupted John frigidly. "You would make, I am sure, any sacrifice to friendship."

"Well, I would go as far as most, that I will say. But when your brother said: 'Now, that bill must not be pre

sented till it comes due,' and I knew that in a month or two he might be across seas with his young woman, that, of course, rather aroused my suspicions. But since you have chosen to settle the matter yourself, there can be no harm in that; can there? I have not broken my word to him, I mean, or behaved otherwise than as a man of honour."

"As regards that, I am no judge, sir," answered John. "To me, this matter is a mere business transaction." "Just So, with no obligation on either side.

And Richard

need know nothing about it, need he? Good afternoon, Mr Milbank, and thank you."

"You have no more bills of mine about you, I suppose?" inquired John imperturbably.

"No, indeed; not at present, that is. Good afternoon, sir."

Gad! I wish I had!

It was

And John was left alone, with the bill in his hand. growing dark by this time, and he lit the gas, and held the document against the light. It was an ordinary three months' bill, drawn by Richard, and accepted by himself, and, to all appearance, in his own handwriting: nobody but himself could have detected that it was a forgery. Nor, indeed, could he have detected it, save that he knew he had never signed it. To gain possession of that paper had cost him near a thousand pounds, which he could ill spare, and yet his eyes flashed with pleasure, and his face flushed with triumph, as he looked at it.

"He shall not have her now!" cried he; "I will send him to jail rather with my own hands."

(72)

CHAPTER X.

THE LAST FAREWELL.

RICHARD had no guests at Rosebank that night, but was roistering elsewhere, and, as usual, did not return until the smallhours. What was not so usual was, that he came home quite sober, and when he saw his brother in the parlour sitting up for him, he turned suddenly grave.

"What! not abed yet, John?" said he, astonished; then falling into his ordinary mocking style, "or is it that you have taken to rise an hour earlier? We have long ceased to eat with one another, and now it seems one must be up and about while the other sleeps."

"I have not been to bed, Richard; I have been waiting here these many hours to speak with you."

That's a pity; if you had sent to old Roberts's, you would have found me any time since dinner. I wish to Heaven you had."

"You have lost your two hundred pounds, then, I conclude?"

"What two hundred pounds ?" 'stammered Richard, setting down the candle he had been about to light, and sinking into a chair. The gas shone full upon his face, and John noticed, for the first time, how much it had lost of health as well as beauty. It could not be said of Richard that he had been no one's enemy but his own; but he had been his own enemy, and would one day slay himself, that was certain. What a

beautiful boy he had been! How generous, after his lavish fashion, and when he himself had had all he needed; and how their dead mother had loved him! Young as John was when she died-a year younger than Richard-such was her confidence in the one, such was her love for the other, that it was to the younger's care that she had commended the elder. "You have the sense and the prudence, John; and when the time comes to help poor Dick, think of me," she had said, "and do it."

It was ten years ago since they had been uttered, yet he remembered his mother's words as though they had been spoken yesterday, and saw her once more, thin and gray, but still very comely, with her wasted hand-through which the sun seemed to shine-lying lovingly in his own. She was the only woman who had ever loved him, and even she had preferred his brother; but he was used even then to that.

"The two hundred pounds that Blake gave you in exchange for that forged bill, I mean," said John, not menacingly, but in a grave accusing tone.

"It is a lie," said Richard sullenly.

"What is a lie? That Blake gave you so much back out of a thousand pounds? As for the bill, I have seen it with my own eyes."

Richard groaned, and his face fell forward into his hands upon the table, as though a bullet had pierced him.

"Listen to me, Richard. Hours ago, when this thing was was first shown to me, I felt very hard towards you. This evil deed was but the climax of a series of ill turns that you had done me, not one of which I had provoked. I have given up everything to you that you have asked, and more; I have stripped myself bare to supply you, not with necesşaries, but with superfluities of all kinds. This last act of yours went nigh to ruin me, as indeed it still does. A great temptation seized upon me; never mind what. I have had