h acquits me of all
responsibility and certifies that I have handed the money over to you
without rebate or reduction."

And with that the man pulled open a drawer and began to count out the
glittering gold.

I sprang to my feet and brought my fist down on the table with a
thump. "Now, by the Great Book of Kells, what do you mean by chopping
and changing like a rudderless lugger in a ten-knot breeze? If the
expedition is possible, and you had the money in your drawer all the
time, why couldn't you have spoken it out like a man, without raising
me to the roof and dropping me into the cellar in the way you've
done?"

The man looked unruffled across the table at me. He pushed a paper a
little farther from him, and said without any trace of emotion:

"Will you sign that receipt at the bottom, if you please?"

I sat down and signed it, but I would rather have jabbed a pen between
his close-set lips to give him a taste of his own ink. Then I sat
quiet and watched him count the gold, placing it all in neat little
pillars before him. When it was finished, he said:

"Will you check the amount?"

"Is that gold mine?" I asked him.

"It is," he replied.

So I rose up without more ado and shovelled it into my pockets, and
he put the receipt into the drawer after reading it over carefully,
and arched his eyebrows without saying anything when he saw me pocket
the coins uncounted.

"I wish you good afternoon," said I.

"I have to detain you one moment longer," he replied. "I have it on
the most trustworthy information that the Earl of Westport is already
aware of your intention to proceed to the country estate alleged to be
owned by him. Your outgoings and incomings are watched, and I have to
inform you that unless you proceed to Rye with extreme caution there
is likelihood that you may be waylaid, and perchance violence offered
to you."

"In that case I will reap a few more swords; but you need not fear, I
shall not trouble you with them."

"They are out of place in a solicitor's chamber," he murmured gently.
"Is there anything further I can do for you?"

"Yes," I said, "there is one thing more. I would be obliged if you
could make me a bundle of legal-looking papers that are of no further
use to you: a sheet of that parchment, and some of the blue stuff like
what I carried. The Earl seems determined to have a packet of papers
from me, and I would like to oblige him, as he's going to be my
father-in-law, although h