profitable," Deede
Dawson said carelessly, for the first time definitely throwing off his
mask of law-abiding citizen under which he lived at Bittermeads.

"It would be a risky job," answered Dunn, showing no surprise at the
suggestion. "The stuff's well guarded, and then, that's not what I'm
thinking about--it's meeting Rupert Dunsmore, man to man, and no one to
come between us. If that ever happens--"

Deede Dawson nodded reassuringly.

"That'll be all right," he said. "So you shall, I promise you that.
But we might as well kill two birds with one stone and clear a bit of
profit, too. I've got to live, like any one else, and I haven't five
thousand a year of my own, so I get my living out of those who have, and
I don't see who has any right to blame me. Mind, if there was any money
in chess, I should be a millionaire, but there isn't, and if a man can
make a fortune on the Stock Exchange, which takes no more thought
or skill than auction-bridge, why shouldn't I make a bit when I can?
There's the 'D. D.' gambit I've invented, people will be studying and
playing for centuries, but it'll never bring me a penny for all the
brain-work I put into it, and so I've got to protect myself, haven't I?"

"It's what I do with less talk about it," answered Dunn contemptuously.
"Why, I've guessed all that from the first when you weren't so all-fired
keen on seeing me in gaol, as most of your honest, hard-working lot,
who only do their swindling in business-hours, would have been. And I've
kept my eyes open, of course. It wasn't hard to twig you did a bit on
the cross yourself. Well, that's your affair, but one thing I do want to
know--how much does Miss Cayley know?"

For all his efforts he could not keep his anxiety entirely out of his
voice as he said this, and recognizing that thereby he had perhaps
risked rousing some suspicion in the other's mind, he added:

"And her mother--the young lady and her mother, how much do they know?"

"Oh," answered Deede Dawson, with his false laugh and cold-watchful
eyes. "My wife knows nothing at all, but Ella's the best helper I've
ever had. She looks so innocent, she can take in any one, and she
never gives the show away, she acts all the time. A wonderful girl and
useful--you'd hardly believe how useful."

Dunn did not answer. It was only by a supreme effort that he kept his
hands from Deede Dawson's throat. He did not believe a word of what the
other said, for he knew well the utter fa