going through the streets together,
five yards apart and dressed exactly alike! Wouldn't the small boys have
liked it! That was my only idea in coming down here. I meant no more
mischief, I'll swear to that! Unfortunately, though, I'd got so keen on
the scheme that I hadn't thought of its weak spot.

"Simon said not a word, but just looked at me--exactly as I've been
looking at people since I took his place in society. And then he asked
me if I was really very hard up. Like a fool I told him the plain truth,
that I had inside of five bob in my pockets and that was every penny I
owned in the world.

"He grinned then--I can see him grinning now--and he said:

"'In that case you'll have a little difficulty in paying your board and
lodging here, and still more in buying clothes. I tell you what I'll
do,' he said, 'I'll buy a ticket back to London for you and leave it
with the stationmaster, and that's every penny you'll ever get out of
me!'

"I saw he had me, but I wasn't going off on those terms. I damned him to
his face and he tried to shut the door on me. We were talking at the
front door all this while, I may mention. I got my foot in the way, and
as I was always a bit stronger than Simon, I had that door open after a
tussle and then I followed him into the library.

"I knew the man was hard as flint and never showed mercy to any one in
his life when he had them on toast, and I knew he had me on toast. How
was I to get any change out of him? That was what I was wondering as I
followed him, and then all at once something--the devil if you
like--put the idea into my head. I'd _be_ Simon!"

He looked round on his audience as though he still relished the memory
of that inspiration.

"The beauty of the idea was that no one would ever dream of suspecting a
man of not being himself! They might suspect him of a lot of things, but
not of that. I hadn't thought of the scheme ten seconds before I
realised how dead safe it was so long as I kept my head. And I have kept
it. No one can deny that!"

His glance this time challenged a contradiction, but no one spoke. The
circle of steadfast eyes and silent lips he seemed to take as a tribute
to his address, for he smiled and then went on:

"Yes, I kept my head from the beginning. I stood talking to him in this
very room, he refusing to answer anything except to repeat that he'd buy
a ticket to London and leave it with the stationmaster, and I working
out the scheme--what to d