shall have the moneys you need----'

'Now that's talking,' interrupted the Captain.

'Although I know it is a foolhardy thing for me to do.'

'You get good enough security, it seems to me,' said the Captain, a
thought gruffly.

'Maybe I do,' said Nathaniel, 'and maybe I do not. Maybe I have a fancy
for my fine guineas, and do not care to part with them, however good the
security may be.'

'Lord, how you chop and change!' said the Captain. 'Act like a plain
man, brother. Will you or will you not?'

'I have said that I will,' said Nathaniel slowly.

I could see that for some reason it amused him to irritate his brother
by his reluctance and by his slow speech. The ancient knave knew it for
the surest way to spur him to the enterprise.

'When can I have the money?' asked the Captain.

'Not to-day,' said Nathaniel slowly, 'nor yet to-morrow.'

'Why not to-morrow? It would serve me well to-morrow.'

'Very well,' said Nathaniel with a sigh; 'to-morrow it shall be, though
you do jostle me vilely.'

'Man alive! I want to be off to sea,' said the Captain.

'The sooner we are off the better,' interpolated Jensen; and once again
I noted that Nathaniel shot a swift glance at him through his
half-closed lids.

'You are bustling fellows, you that follow the sea life,' said
Nathaniel. 'Well, it shall be to-morrow, and I will have all the papers
made ready and the money in fat bags, and you will have nothing to do
but to sign the one and to pocket the other. And now I must be jogging.'

The Captain made no show of staying him. Nathaniel moved towards the
door slowly, weighing up upon his crutched stick.

'Farewell, Marmaduke!' he said. He took the Captain's hand, but soon
parted with it.

Then he looked at me.

'Good-day, young fellow,' he said. 'Do not forget that I told you you
went on a fool's errand.'

I drew aside to make way for him, and he left the room without a look or
a word for Cornelys Jensen. In another minute I saw him through the
window hobbling along the street.

He looked malignant enough, but I did not know then how malignant a
thing he was. I was ever a weak wretch at figures and business and
finance, but it was made plain to me later that Master Nathaniel had so
handled Master Marmaduke in this matter of the lending of moneys, that
if by any chance anything grave were to happen to Master Marmaduke and
to the lad Lancelot and the lass Marjorie all that belonged to Captain
Marmaduke would sw