quick succession of staggering facers, administered right and left on the
eyes and noses of the subordinates. These, however, though bruised and
bleeding, succeeded at last in grappling their man, and all came to the
ground together, and there struggled furiously; every window in the
street was open by this time, and at one the white hair and reverend face
of Michael Penfold looked out on this desperate and unseemly struggle
with hands that beat the air in helpless agony and inarticulate cries of
terror.

The detective got up and sat upon Robert Penfold's chest; and at last the
three forced the handcuffs upon him and took him in a cab to the
station-house.

Next day, before the magistrate, Wardlaw senior proved the note was a
forgery, and Mr. Adams's partner swore to the prisoner as the person who
had presented and indorsed the note. The officers attended, two with
black eyes apiece, and one with his jaw bound up, and two sound teeth in
his pocket, which had been driven from their sockets by the prisoner in
his desperate attempt to escape. Their evidence hurt the prisoner, and
the magistrate refused bail.

The Reverend Robert Penfold was committed to prison, to be tried at the
Central Criminal Court on a charge of felony.

Wardlaw senior returned home, and told Wardlaw junior, who said not a
word. He soon received a letter from Robert Penfold, which agitated him
greatly, and he promised to go to the prison and see him.

But he never went.

He was very miserable, a prey to an inward struggle. He dared not offend
his father on the eve of being made partner. Yet his heart bled for
Robert Penfold.

He did what might perhaps have been expected from that pale eye and
receding chin--he temporized. He said to himself, "Before that horrible
trial comes on, I shall be the house of Wardlaw, and able to draw a check
for thousands. I'll buy off Adams at any price, and hush up the whole
matter."

So he hoped, and hoped. But the accountant was slow, the public
prosecutor unusually quick; and, to young Wardlaw's agony, the
partnership deed was not ready when an imploring letter was put into his
hands, urging him, by all that men hold sacred, to attend at the court as
the prisoner's witness.

This letter almost drove young Wardlaw mad. He went to Adams and
entreated him not to carry the matter into court. But Adams was
inexorable. He had got his money, but would be revenged for the fright.

Baffled here, young Wardlaw went