was a strong county man, as you may know, and thought that when
people heard that he had taken shares, it would tend to restore
confidence in the concern. Now, as, on the contrary, Brander seems to
have taken special pains to prevent the transaction being known even by
the directors, it is clear that his explanation was a lie, that for some
reasons of his own he wished to defeat my father's intentions. I think I
must get you to put the statement you have made to me on paper, and to
get it sworn before a public notary--at least I think that is the way
out here."

"I have no objection to do that, but as it is my intention to continue
to live here where I am now known as a resident and feel myself pretty
safe, except from some chance meeting like that of yours, I would rather
that it should be done somewhere else."

"That is reasonable enough," Cuthbert agreed. "I expect the gates will
be open in a day or two, and I shall go to England at once and try to
get to the bottom of this matter. I should think the Prussians will let
Englishmen pass out at once. Would you mind going with me as far as
Calais? We can get the document sworn to in legal form and you can then
come back here."

"I would rather go to Brussels," the man said.

"No doubt that would be best," Cuthbert agreed. "It might be as well
that it should not be done at any place in France. Well, Mr. Cumming,
your secret is safe with me. I will call on you again as soon as I find
that we can get across to Brussels."

"I shall be ready whenever you are, Mr. Hartington. Of course, I don't
quite see what you will do with this document, but I am perfectly ready
to sign it."

"I don't see either. I shall want to think the matter over. At present I
feel in a complete fog."

"I can quite understand that. I may tell you that Brander puzzled me a
good deal the last two or three months before the bank stopped. He spent
two or three hours going into the affairs with me. He knew generally how
matters stood, but he had never gone thoroughly into them before. When
he had done he said, 'I knew you were in a very bad way before but I did
not think it was as bad as this. I want to see whether the smash could
not be postponed. Things have been bad lately, but I think they are
improving, and some of these affairs that you have been bolstering up
might pull round if you had time given you."

"I did not see much chance of that. However, I did not say so in fact, I
wanted to hear