anguage you ever heard to
a heated debate; then fling books at each other, and finally clench,
while the judge stood up and saw fair play. But this man Brooks was so
calm and collected and uninterested that he fairly discouraged me, and
I saw that I was going to get neither the money I needed nor the
support I expected from him.

As I went up his dark stairway in the Temple and came to the passage
that led to the outer room, I saw standing in a corner the two bundles
of swords I had sent him, as if he had cast them out, which indeed he
had done. After some delay in the outer room, the melancholy man in
rusty black asked me, would I go in, and there sat Josiah Brooks at
his table as if he had never left it since I took my departure the day
before. He looked across at me with a scrutiny which seemed to be
mingled with dislike and disapproval.

"Mr. O'Ruddy," he said, quiet-like, "it is not customary to send to a
law office a number of swords, which are entirely out of place in such
rooms. They have been counted and are found to number nine. I shall be
obliged if you sign this receipt for them, accept delivery of the
same, and remove them from the premises at your earliest convenience."

So I signed the receipt without a word and handed it back to him. Then
I said,--

"I will send my servant for the swords as soon as I return to the
inn."

He inclined his head the merest trifle, drew some papers toward him,
and adjusted his glasses.

"It is my duty to tell you, Mr. O'Ruddy, that if you go into the
courts with this case you will assuredly be defeated, and the costs
will follow. There is also a possibility that when the civil
proceedings are determined a criminal action against yourself may
ensue."

"I told you, sir," said I, with my heart sinking, "I had no intention
of troubling the courts at all at all. In the land I come from we are
more inclined to settle a case with a good stout blackthorn than with
the aid of a lawyer's wig. These papers say in black and white that I
am the owner of Brede estate, and I intend to take possession of it."

"It is only right to add," continued Brooks, with that great air of
calm I found so exasperating, "it is only right to add that you are in
a position to cause great annoyance to the Earl of Westport. You can
at least cast doubt on his title to the estate; and he stands this
jeopardy, that if contrary to opinion your cause should prove
successful,--and we must never forget th