not
usually associated with smiles, "one just has to shoot the bird when he
happens to come over your head, don't you know, you can't send in
beaters after that kind of fowl, Mr. Rattar. And when he does come out,
there you are! You have to make hay while the sun shines."

Again the lawyer nodded, and again he made no remark. The apprehension
in his visitor's eye increased, his smile died away, and suddenly he
exclaimed:

"For God's sake, Mr. Rattar, say something! I meant honestly to pay you
back--I felt sure I could sell that last thing of mine before now, but
not a word yet from the editor I sent it to!"

Still there came only a guarded grunt from Simon and the young man went
on with increasing agitation.

"You won't give me away to Sir Reginald, will you? He's been damned
crusty with me lately about money matters, as it is. If you make me
desperate----!" He broke off and gazed dramatically into space for a
moment, and then less dramatically at his lawyer.

Silent Simon was proverbially cautious, but it seemed to his visitor
that his demeanour this morning exceeded all reasonable limits. For
nearly a minute he answered absolutely nothing, and then he said very
slowly and deliberately:

"I think it would be better, Mr. Cromarty, if you gave me a brief,
explicit statement of how you got into this mess."

"Dash it, you know too well--" began Cromarty.

"It would make you realise your own position more clearly," interrupted
the lawyer. "You want me to assist you, I take it?"

"Rather--if you will!"

"Well then, please do as I ask you. You had better start at the
beginning of your relations with Sir Reginald."

Malcolm Cromarty's face expressed surprise, but the lawyer's was
distinctly less severe, and he began readily enough:

"Well, of course, as you know, my cousin Charles Cromarty died about 18
months ago and I became the heir to the baronetcy--" he broke off and
asked, "Do you mean you want me to go over all that?"

Simon nodded, and he went on:

"Sir Reginald was devilish good at first--in his own patronising way,
let me stay at Keldale as often and as long as I liked, made me an
allowance and so on; but there was always this fuss about my taking up
something a little more conventional than literature. Ha, ha!" The young
man laughed in a superior way and then looked apprehensively at the
other. "But I suppose you agree with Sir Reginald?"

Simon pursed his lips and made a non-committal sound.