then, that's the reason. You did n't
say I was the confidential agent of his family, charged with a most
important communication?"

"If I didn't, it was, perhaps, because I didn't know it," said the man,
laughing.

"Well, then, go back at once, and say that I've come out special,--that
I must see him,--that the ten minutes I 'll stay will save years
and years of law and chancery,--and that"--here he dropped his
voice--"there's a hundred pounds here for the same minutes."

"You'd better keep that secret to yourself, my good friend," interposed
the sergeant, stiffly.

"Well, so I will, if you recommend it," said the other, submissively;
"but surely, a ten-pound note would do you no harm yourself, Sergeant."

An insolent laugh was the only answer the other vouchsafed, as he
lighted his cigar and sat down before the fire.

"They won't let me see him for the mischief it might do him," resumed
the other, "and little they know that what I have to tell him might be
the saving of his life."

"How so?"

"Just that I 've news for him here that would make a man a'most get out
of his coffin,--news that would do more to cure him than all the doctors
in Europe. There's paper in that bag there that only wants his name
to them' to be worth thousands and thousands of pounds, and if he dies
without signing them there's nothing but ruin to come of it; and when
I said a ten-pound note awhile ago to you, it was a hundred gold
sovereigns I meant, counted into the hollow of your fist, just as you
sat there. See now, show me your hand."

As if in a sort of Jocular pantomime, the man held out his hand, and the
other, taking a strong leather purse from his pocket, proceeded to
untie the string, fastened with many a cunning device. At length it was
opened, and, emptying out a quantity of its contents into one hand, he
began to deposit the pieces, one by one, in the other's palm. "One, two,
three, four," went he on, leisurely, till the last sovereign dropped
from his fingers with the words "one hundred!"

Secret and safe as the bargain seemed, a pair of keen eyes peering
through the half-snowed-up window had watched the whole negotiation,
following the sergeant's fingers as they closed upon the gold and
deposited it within his pocket.

"Wait here, and I'll see what can be done by and by," said the sergeant,
as he moved away.

Scarcely was the stranger left alone than the door opened, and a man
entered, shaking the snow from his hea