."

"The very thing," cried the Doctor, joyously, at once putting to rest
all my doubts concerning him. "The very thing. I would give the papers
to Paddy and tell him to protect them with his life. I'm sure he'll do
it, and you'll know where to find both them and him when you want
them. But to go away from the 'Pig and Turnip' right across to the
other end of the town, taking your two servants with you, leaving
nobody to guard papers that are of importance to you, strikes me as
the height of folly. I'll just fill up another cup, and so bid you
good-night, and good luck for the morrow."

And with that the little man drained the bottle, taking his leave with
great effusion, and begging my pardon for even so much as mentioning
the papers, saying they had been on his mind for the last day or two,
and, feeling friendly toward me, he wished to warn me not to leave
them carelessly about.

After he left I thought a good deal about what the Doctor had said,
and I wondered at myself that I had ever misdoubted him; for, although
he was a man given greatly to talk, yet he had been exceedingly
friendly with me from the very first night I had met him, and I
thought shame of myself that I was losing trust in my fellow man here
in this great city of London, because in Ireland we trust each other
entirely; and indeed we are under some compulsion in that same matter,
for there is so little money about that if you do not take a man's
word now and then there's nothing else for you to take.

CHAPTER XXVII

I slept well that night, and it was broad daylight when I awoke. A
most beautiful morning it seemed to me, and just the time for a lonely
stroll in the beautiful gardens, so long as there was some one with
you that you thought a great deal of. I made a good breakfast, and
then took out the papers and placed them on the table before me. They
were all safe so far. I could not comprehend how the Earl would know
anything of my being in London, unless, indeed, he caught sight of me
walking in his own gardens with his own daughter, and then, belike, he
was so jealous a man that he would maybe come to the conclusion I was
in London as well as himself.

After breakfast Paddy and Jem came in, looking as bold as Blarney
Castle; and when I eyed them both I saw that neither one nor the other
was a fit custodian for papers that might make the proudest Earl in
England a poor man or a rich man, depending which way they went. So I
put the