"There are questions I can answer, and there are questions I can't
answer," responded Glassdale. "That's one of the questions I've no reply
to. For--I don't know! But--I can say this. He hadn't tracked 'em down
the day before he came to Wrychester!"

"You're sure of that?" asked Folliot. "He--didn't come here on that
account?"

"No, I'm sure he didn't!" answered Glassdale, readily. "If he had, I
should have known. I was with him till noon the day he came here--in
London--and when he took his ticket at Victoria for Wrychester, he'd no
more idea than the man in the moon as to where those men had got to.
He mentioned it as we were having a bit of lunch together before he got
into the train. No--he didn't come to Wrychester for any such purpose as
that! But--"

He paused and gave Folliot a meaning glance out of the corner of his
eyes.

"Aye--what?" asked Folliot.

"I think he met at least one of 'em here," said Glassdale, quietly.
"And--perhaps both."

"Leading to--misfortune for him?" suggested Folliot.

"If you like to put it that way--yes," assented Glassdale.

Folliot smoked a while in more reflective silence.

"Aye, well!" he said at last. "I suppose you haven't put these ideas of
yours before anybody, now?"

"Present ideas?" asked Glassdale, sharply. "Not to a soul! I've not had
'em--very long."

"You're the sort of man that another man can do a deal with, I suppose?"
suggested Folliot. "That is, if it's made worth your while, of course?"

"I shouldn't wonder," replied Glassdale. "And--if it is made worth my
while."

Folliot mused a little. Then he tapped Glassdale's elbow.

"You see," he said, confidentially, "it might be, you know, that I had
a little purpose of my own in offering that reward. It might be that
it was a very particular friend of mine that had the misfortune to have
incurred this man Braden's hatred. And I might want to save him, d'ye
see, from--well, from the consequence of what's happened, and to hear
about it first if anybody came forward, eh?"

"As I've done," said Glassdale.

"As--you've done," assented Folliot. "Now, perhaps it would be in the
interest of this particular friend of mine if he made it worth your
while to--say no more to anybody, eh?"

"Very much worth his while, Mr. Folliot," declared Glassdale.

"Aye, well," continued Folliot. "This very particular friend would
just want to know, you know, how much you really, truly know! Now, for
instance, about these two