ol hasn't been loaded
these fifteen years, as you would have known very well, if you had not
been such a coward. That policeman is coming, and I will have him up,
and have your trunks searched; I have reason to believe that you are a
thief, sir. I know you are. I'll swear to the things."

"You gave 'em to me--you gave 'em to me!" cried Morgan.

The Major laughed. "We'll see," he said; and the guilty valet
remembered some fine lawn-fronted shirts--a certain gold-headed cane--an
opera-glass, which he had forgotten to bring down, and of which he had
assumed the use along with certain articles of his master's clothes,
which the old dandy neither wore nor asked for.

Policeman X entered; followed by the seared Mrs. Brixham and her
maid-of-all-work, who had been at the door and found some difficulty in
closing it against the street amateurs, who wished to see the row. The
Major began instantly to speak.

"I have had occasion to discharge this drunken scoundrel," he said.
"Both last night and this morning he insulted and assaulted me. I am an
old man and took up a pistol. You see it is not loaded, and this coward
cried out before he was hurt. I am glad you are come. I was charging
him with taking my property, and desired to examine his trunks and his
room."

"The velvet cloak you ain't worn these three years, nor the weskits, and
I thought I might take the shirts, and I--I take my hoath I intended
to put back the hopera-glass," roared Morgan, writhing with rage and
terror.

"The man acknowledges that he is a thief," the Major said, calmly. "He
has been in my service for years, and I have treated him with every
kindness and confidence. We will go upstairs and examine his trunks."

In those trunks Mr. Morgan had things which he would fain keep from
public eyes. Mr. Morgan, the bill-discounter, gave goods as well as
money to his customers. He provided young spendthrifts with snuff boxes
and pins and jewels and pictures and cigars, and of a very doubtful
quality those cigars and jewels and pictures were. Their display at a
police-office, the discovery of his occult profession, and the exposure
of the Major's property, which he had appropriated, indeed, rather than
stolen,--would not have added to the reputation of Mr. Morgan. He looked
a piteous image of terror and discomfiture.

"He'll smash me, will he?" thought the Major. "I'll crush him now, and
finish with him."

But he paused. He looked at poor Mrs. Brixham's scar