rther declined in health, and could not be expected to last long; but
what was unexpected by those who knew them both was that he outlived his
legal adviser, Mr Burrows, who was attacked with pleurisy, which
carried him off soon after he had made Mr Richard Burke's last will.

His son came into his place, but he was a mild and not very intelligent
young man, not long out of his articles, and very dependent upon Daireh,
who knew all the details of his father's clients' business, and was so
deferential and obsequious, that he made him think very often that he
had originated the course of conduct which the wily Egyptian had
suggested. As for the other partner, Fagan, he confined himself
entirely, as he always had done, to the criminal and political part of
the business.

Daireh was a bachelor, living in lodgings, and might have saved money to
a reasonable extent in a modest way. But he was anything but modest in
his desire for wealth, and the law would have given a very ugly name to
some of the transactions by which he sought to acquire it if they had
but come to light.

One February afternoon he left the office rather earlier than usual, and
after a hurried dinner repaired to his lodgings, where he mixed himself
a strong glass of whisky. Then he took a flask of glass and leather
with a metal cup fitting to the bottom, and, unlocking a bureau, took
out of a drawer a small phial.

He listened; went to the door--opened it, and looked out on the
staircase; shut it again, locked it, and returned to the bureau. His
hand shook so that he took another pull at his grog, and then uncorking
the phial he poured the contents into the flask, filled it up with
whisky, screwed the top on, and put it into his pocket.

Then he went out once more, and bent his steps to a railway station,
where he took a ticket to a small country place about an hour's ride
from Dublin. It was growing dark when he arrived, but there was a moon,
and the sky was fairly clear from clouds.

He walked for a mile along the road, and then turned off by a path which
crossed a moor, and pursued this until he came within sight of a small
disused quarry, from which all the valuable stone had been long ago
carried.

As Daireh approached the place he clapped his hands three times, and a
man came out of the shadow into the moonlight.

"Stebbings, is that you?" said Daireh.

"Yes, it is," replied the other, sulkily. "No thanks to you for having
to skulk lik