ed. "I don't understand what you are
driving at. Anybody would think that you were no more than a silly child
who had nothing to do but to attend to your flowers and stick your
postage stamps in your album. And yet----"

"And yet I can give my attention to more serious matters," the cripple
said with a sudden stern expression and in a voice that had a metallic
ring in it. "You are right. And if you two have eaten and drunk enough
we will get to business."

There was a little stir amongst the listeners, the Rajah pitching his
cigar into the grate and coming forward eagerly. Evidently something was
going to happen.

CHAPTER XVI

Cool and collected as he usually was, even Field was excited now. He
crept as near to the drawing room door as he dared, and peeped into the
ring of light, eagerly. He popped back hurriedly as the man called
Reggie and the Rajah came into the hall and proceeded to enter a room
opposite, under the direction of the little cripple. Richford seemed to
be vague and irritated.

"What the deuce is the good of all this mystery?" he asked. "Why don't
you come to the point, Sartoris? But no, you must always be so
infernally close, just as if you were the only one of us who rejoices in
the possession of brains."

"Well, so I am," Sartoris said, without the least display of temper.
"You don't delude yourself that you are a person of intellect, surely?
Cunning you have of a low order, the mean, vulgar cunning that enables
people to make money in the city. But that is not intellect, my dear
friend--intellect is quite another matter. We very nearly landed
ourselves in a serious mess because I did not care to trust you too far.
And when we were face to face with that mess, what good were you? What
good was anybody besides myself? Where was the brain that schemed out
everything and made success certain? True, I had allies upon whom I
could depend--Reggie and Cora, for example. But they could have done
nothing without me. And now we have the thing in our hands again. Come
along, then."

Richford subsided, muttering to himself. From the room opposite came the
sound of somebody moving a heavy package of some kind, and presently the
man called Reggie and the Rajah appeared shuffling a big case between
them. The box scraped over the polished parquet floor, leaving deep
scratches as it went; amidst a strained, breathing silence it was pushed
into the dining-room. Sartoris watched these proceedings with