ed, but go he'd have to; and go he did, with his tail between
his legs, and not another word to anybody. I believe it was the boss who
started him in Western Australia."

"Not such a bad boss," remarked Langholm, dryly; and the words set him
thinking a moment on his own account. "And what happened to you?" he
added, abandoning reflection by an effort.

"I stayed on."

"Forgiven?"

"If you like to put it that way."

"And you both filed the secret for future use!"

"Don't talk through your neck, mister," said Abel, huffily. "What are
you drivin' at?"

"You kept this secret up your sleeve to play it for all it was worth in
a country where it would be worth more than it was in the back-blocks?
That's all I mean."

"Well, if I did, that's my own affair."

"Oh, certainly. Only you came here at your own proposal in order, I
suppose, to sell this secret to me?"

"Yes, to sell it."

"Then, you see, it is more or less my affair as well."

"It may be," said Abel, doggedly. And his face was very evil as he
struck a match to relight his pipe; but before the flame Langholm had
stepped backward, with his stick, that no superfluous light might fall
upon his thin wrists and half-filled sleeves.

"You are sure," he pursued, "that Mr. Minchin was in possession of this
precious secret at the time of his death?"

"I told it him myself. It isn't one you would forget."

"Was it one that he could prove?"

"Easily."

"Could I?"

"Anybody could."

"Well, and what's your price?"

"Fifty pounds."

"Nonsense! I'm not a rich man like Mr. Steel."

"I don't take less from anybody--not much less, anyhow!"

"Not twenty in hard cash?"

"Not me; but look here, mister, you show me thirty and we'll see."

The voice drew uncomfortably close. And there were steps upon the
cross-roads at last; they were those of one advancing with lumbering
gait and of another stepping nimbly backward. The latter laughed aloud.

"Did you really think I would come to meet the writer of a letter like
yours, at night, in a spot like this, with a single penny-piece in my
pocket? Come to my cottage, and we'll settle there."

"I'm not coming in!"

"To the gate, then. It isn't three hundred yards from this. I'll lead
the way."

Langholm set off at a brisk walk, his heart in his mouth. But the
lumbering steps did not gain upon him; a muttered grumbling was their
only accompaniment; and in minute they saw the lights. In another minute
they were