ndred down and the balance afterwards. This is an
important matter. This is no child's play." The subtle and criminal part
of Benjamin's mind began to see that the affair would place his landlord
and mortgagee in his power, and relieve him for evermore from financial
pressure. To his peculiar conscience it was justifiable to overreach his
grasping creditor, a right and proper thing to upset the shrewd
Varnhagen's plans: a thought of the proposed breach of the law,
statutory and moral, did not occur to his mind.

"There may be some bother about the seals of the bags," said the
merchant, "but we'll pray it may be rough, and in that case nothing is
simpler--one bag at least can get lost, and the rest can have their
seals damaged, and so on. You will go out at ten to-morrow night, and
you will have pretty well till daylight to do the job. Do you
understand?"

Benjamin had begun to reflect.

"Doesn't it mean gaol if I'm caught?"

"Nonsense, man. How can you be caught? It's _I_ who take the risk. _I_
am responsible for the delivery of the mails, and if anything goes wrong
it's _I_ will have to suffer. You do your little bit, and I'll see that
you get off scot-free. Here's my hand on it."

The merchant held out his flabby hand, and Tresco took it.

"It's a bargain?"

"It's a bargain," said Tresco.

Crookenden reached for his cheque book, and wrote out a cheque for fifty
pounds.

"Take this cheque to the bank, and cash it."

Tresco took the bit of signed paper, and looked at it.

"Fifty?" he remarked. "I said a hundred down."

"You shall have the balance when you have done the work."

"And I can do it how I like, where I like, and when I like between
nightfall and dawn?"

"Exactly."

"Then I think I can do it so that all the post office clerks in the
country couldn't bowl me out."

But the merchant merely nodded in response to this braggadocio--he was
already giving his mind to other matters.

Without another word the goldsmith left the office. He walked quickly
along the street, regarding neither the garish shops nor the people he
passed, and entered the doors of the Kangaroo Bank, where the Semitic
clerk stood behind the counter.

"How will you take it?"

The words were sweet to Benjamin's ear.

"Tens," he said.

The bank-notes were handed to him, and he went home quickly.

The digger was sitting where Tresco had left him.

"There's your money," said the goldsmith, throwing the notes upon the
t