n from a
criminal had suddenly become a judge. He spoke with such absolute
conviction, ease, sense of power and scorn, that there could be no
manner of doubt he held the winning cards. He opened the letter case and
produced a paper.

"Here is the bill of exchange for two hundred and fifty pounds, to which
you forged Sir Pleydell Tuffnell's name," said Marcus Mulhausen,
spreading the paper before him. "That was two years ago. We all know Sir
Pleydell and his easy going ways. He is so careless you thought he would
never find out; so good, he would never prosecute. But it came into my
hands, it is my property, and I have no hesitation in dealing with
rogues. Now do you suppose for a moment that if I were moving against
you in any unlawful way--which I deny--I would have done so without a
protector? Could you find a better protection than this? The punishment
for forgery let me remind you, is five years penal servitude at the
least." He looked down at the document with a cold smile, and then he
glanced up again at his victim. Jones saw that he was done; done not by
Marcus Mulhausen, but by Rochester. He had tripped over a kink in
Rochester's character, just as a man trips over a kink in a carpet. Then
rage came to him. The sight of the horrible scoundrel with whiskers,
triumphant and gloating, roused the dog in his nature, and all the craft
that lay hidden in him.

He heaved a sigh, rose brokenly, and approached the desk, and the
creature behind it.

"You are a cleverer man than I am," said he, "shake hands and call it
quits."

Next moment he had snatched the paper from the fingers that held it,
crumpled it, crammed it into his mouth. He rushed to the door and locked
it, whilst Mulhausen, screaming like a woman, reached him and clutched
him by the shoulders.

Then, swiftly turning, Jones gripped the financier by both arms and held
him so, chewing, chewing, chewing, mute and facing the shouting other
one.

They were hammering at the door outside. Mr. Aaronson and the clerks,
useless people for breaking-down-door purposes, were assisting their
employer with their voices--mainly, the whole block of offices was
raised, and boys and telephones were summoning the police.

Meanwhile, Jones was chewing, and the bill was slowly being converted
into what the physiologist terms a bolus. It took three minutes before
the bolus, properly salivated and raised by the tongue, passed the
anterior pillars of the fauces, then the epi