and will have got the job done very
cheaply. But there is another side to the question. Both you and I have
been counting our chickens before they are hatched. Suppose I don't
succeed in laying hold of the Diamond--what then? And, mind you, I don't
think I shall succeed. To begin with--I don't half believe in the
existence of your big Diamond. It looks to me very much like a hoax from
beginning to end. But granting the existence of the stone, and that it
was stolen by your Russian friend, are not the chances a thousand to one
either that he has disposed of it long ago, or else that he has hidden
it away in some place so safe that the cleverest burglar in London
would be puzzled to get at it? Suppose, for instance, that it is
deposited by him at his banker's: in that case, what are your
expectations worth? Not a brass farthing. No, my dear dad, the risk of
failure is too great, outweighing, as it does, the chances of success a
thousandfold, for me to have the remotest hope of ever fingering the
fifteen hundred pounds. I have, therefore, to appraise my time and
services as the hero of a losing cause. I say the hero; for I certainly
consider that I am about to play the leading part in the forthcoming
drama--that I am the bright particular 'star' round which the lesser
lights will all revolve. Such being the case, I do not consider that I
am rating my services too highly when I name two hundred guineas as the
lowest sum for which I am willing to play the part of James Jasmin,
footman, spy and amateur detective."

Again Mr. Deedes gasped for breath. He opened his mouth, but words
refused to come. He shook his head with a fine tragic air, and wiped his
eyes.

"Take an hour or two to consider it," said the son, indulgently. "If you
agree to my proposition, I shall want it put down in black and white and
properly signed. If you do not agree to it, I start back for town by
this night's mail."

"James, James, you are one too many for me!" said the old man,
pathetically. "Let us go and dine."

The first thing Madgin junior did after they got back to the hotel was
to place before his father a sheet of note-paper, an inkstand and a pen.
"Write," he said; and the old man wrote to his dictation:--

"I, Solomon Madgin, on the part of Lady Chillington, of Deepley
Walls, do hereby promise and bind myself to pay over into the hands
of my son, James Madgin, the sum of fifteen hundred pounds (L1,500)
on the day th