and I'm going to
stay here, unless I get my father's orders to go away.'

Now John Jervase was undoubtedly a good deal of a rogue, but no man is
all of a piece, and he had one or two good characteristics. Amongst them
was a true and deep affection for his only son, and if at the beginning
of his career he had had any such hope of honour and credit as his son
had bidden fair to bring him as he neared the close of it, he would
have made a better man. Polson's quietly expressed resolve pinched him a
little inwardly, and he gave the boy a glance of gratitude.

'I don't say go, lad--I say stay. I've honoured and respected General
Boswell since we first came to be neighbours, twenty years ago; and now
I should have a very poor eye indeed if I couldn't see that he's on the
way to lose his respect for me, if events don't change his mind. But if
there's anything to be browt against Jack Jervase, let Jack Jervase's
lad stand by and hear it, and see how his father takes the ackisation.'

'Very well, Jervase,' said the General. 'We will have it so. I have an
interest in this affair, and I must tell you plainly that your manner
is so very strange that I feel scarcely comfortable under it. You are a
business man, and you must not object to my using business terms. Very
nearly the whole of my fortune is invested in your hands. If your credit
is seriously shaken, and, above all, if it is shaken by such a charge
as is now being brought against the firm, my daughter and I are on the
verge of ruin. It wouldn't greatly matter about an old campaigner
like myself, for I am not yet so far broken that I can't still run in
harness. But I have my little girl to think of, and for her sake I am
going to do my duty, as a business man, however unpleasant it may be to
me to do it.'

'The scandal can't touch you, sir.' The General smiled sternly.

'It can't touch me in one way, but it may break my fortune. Now answer
me this one question. What is the worth of the brine which has been
pumped up from our workings since the firm of Jervase & Jervoyce began
to prosper in that enterprise?'

'I can tell you that, sir, roughly, in the turn of a hand. First and
last, two hundred thousand pounds. That may be a thousand wrong on one
side or the other--it may even be five thousand wrong on the one side or
the other--but I'll guarantee that it's not more than that.'

'So that if this claim, whether by fair means or by foul, could be
established, the firm