t do you make of it?" said Charles. "It makes me sick."

"He evidently needs your help," said Miss Penny.

"Yes, but have I the right to give it him? That's the question."

"He says----" began Graeme.

"Oh, he says!" growled Charles. "Trouble is, he's been saying for the
last twenty years, and it has all been a lie. This is probably all a
lie too. Not all"--he added grimly. "As I read it, he has got funds
stowed away somewhere and he's anxious to get to them."

"So that he may make restitution," urged Miss Penny.

"Yes, that's what he says," said Charles, in a tone that showed no
slightest tincture of conviction. "What would you do," he asked,
looking up at Graeme, "if you were in my place?"

Graeme filled his pipe thoughtfully.

"Let us look at it quietly all round," he said, and lit up and puffed
away contemplatively.

"From what he says,"--checking off his points on his fingers,--"if you
don't assist him, he may be taken, and the--the unpleasantness of the
situation be thereby increased.... I do not see that his punishment
would help anyone--except maybe as a deterrent, and that is
problematical.... I gather from this, as you do, that he has funds
awaiting him somewhere.... You have no great faith in his promises--"

"None," growled Charles.

"And I presume, as a business man, you would count a bird in the hand
worth several in the bush--in other words, you would sooner have what
he has stowed away--somewhere, than what he hopes to make some time--"

"Sight sooner!"

"Then, I should say, offer him such assistance as he needs to get
away, and, if you can see your way to it, a bit to live on afterwards,
on condition of his placing in your hands everything he has got stowed
away, so that you can pass it on to the receiver."

Charles shook his head. "I couldn't trust him."

"Then there's only one thing to do if he agrees, and that is to go
with him and bring the property back with you."

Charles groaned. "It may mean the Argentine. Spain's no place for
investments these days."

"It's rough on you, old man, but it's the best I can think of," said
Graeme.

"And supposing he tells me to go hang?"

"Then," said Graeme, with a shrug, "I don't see that you can help him.
I have no personal feeling against him whatever, but I cannot see how
you can help him except on some such lines as I've indicated. How does
it strike you, Meg?"

But Margaret shook her head. "I feel very much as you do. If he is
caugh