ought it well to take my mother there, to be out of things for a
time."

"Quite so, quite so! That was very thoughtful of you. This is a
terrible calamity that has befallen us. But, as I said in my letter, I
have every hope of being able to redeem matters if I can only get to
where that is possible."

"Where's that?"

"Well, in the first place to Spain--"

"And afterwards?"

Mr. Pixley hesitated. "Perhaps--for your own sake--it would be as well
you should not know--for the present, at all events. You may be asked
questions. If you don't know, you can truthfully say so."

"I gather that you have funds put away somewhere."

"If I can get to where I want to go, I can at all events make a fresh
start. And I am prepared to devote the rest of my life to the one
object I have named.... The last few years have been very wearying. I
have had trouble with my heart at times;" and he put his hand to his
side to emphasise it. "But if I can get quietly away I shall soon pull
round and be ready for work again, now that the strain is over."

"You know you're asking me to do what I've no right to do?" said
Charles gloomily.

"I know, my boy, and it is very bitter for me to have to ask it. But I
can't get away without your help, and the alternative is not pleasant
to think of--for either of us.... I do not ask more than I would
willingly have done for you if the positions were reversed.... On the
whole, I do not think I have been a bad father to you. Circumstances,
indeed, have been too strong for me at the end, but--"

"I am willing to do what you want--and more, on one condition."

"What is that? Anything in reason--"

"I will provide you with funds to get away, and I will send you three
hundred pounds each year--"

"Good lad!"

"On condition that you hand over to me all the property you've got
stowed away--"

"Damn!"

"So that I may hand it over to your creditors."

"Why not write at once to Scotland Yard and tell them where I am? But,
after all, I'm not sure that even your world would applaud so filial
an act as that."

"I'm prepared to make sacrifices myself to help right some of this
wrong--"

"I had to make many for you, my boy, before you were old enough to
understand it--before my own position was assured. Ay, and since too.
I would have flung it all up years ago but for you. I wanted you to be
set firmly on your feet before the crash came. It has been killing
work. I'm glad it's over--whatever the end