nd I thought if you had the papers here in your
room it was very unsafe to leave them unprotected by yourself or some
one you can trust. I was just speaking as your well-wisher, for I
don't want to hear you crying you are robbed, and us at our wit's end
not getting either the thief or the booty."

He spoke with great candour and good humour, and the only thing that
made me suspicious at first was that for the life of me I could not
ever remember mentioning the papers to him, yet it was very likely
that I did; for, as my father used to say, an Irishman talks more than
the recording angel can set down in his busiest day, and therefore it
is lucky that everything he says is not held against him. It seemed to
me that we talked more of scandal than of papers in the park, but
still I might be mistaken.

"Very good, Doctor," I cried, genially. "The papers it is, and, true
for you, the Earl would like to get his old claws on them. Have you
any suggestions to make?"

"Well, it seems to me, O'Ruddy, that if the Earl got wind of them it
would be the easiest thing in the world to have your apartment rifled
during your absence."

"That is true enough," I agreed, "so what would you do about the
papers if you were in my boots?"

"If I had a friend I could trust," said Doctor Chord slowly, "I would
give the papers to him and tell him to take good care of them."

"But why not carry them about in my own pocket?" I asked.

"It seemed to me they were not any too safe last time they were
there," said the Doctor, pleasantly enough. "You see, O'Ruddy, you're
a marked man if once the Earl gets wind of your being in town. To
carry the papers about on your own person would be the unsafest thing
you could do, ensuring you a stab in the back, so that little use
you'd have for the papers ever after. I have no desire to be mixed
further in your affairs than I am at the present moment, but
nevertheless I could easily take charge of the packet for you; then
you would know where it was."

"But would I be sure to know where _you_ were?" said I, my first
suspicion of him returning to me.

The little Doctor laughed.

"I am always very easily found," he said; "but when I offered to take
the papers it was merely in case a stranger like yourself should not
have a faster friend beside him than I am. If you have any such, then
I advise you to give custody of the papers to him."

"I have no real friend in London that I know of," said I, "but Paddy