him?"

"Oh yes, I can; 'e's no friend of mine. 'E told everybody on the Road
that I went shares with the Devil," said Jonah, with an uneasy grin.
"'Ere, I'll show yer wot 'e thinks of me."

He felt in his pocket for a coin, and crossed the street. Paasch had
finished his piece, and putting his fiddle under his arm, turned to the
loafers with a beseeching air. They looked the other way and discussed
the weather. Then Jonah stepped up to him and thrust the coin into his
hand. Paasch, feeling something unaccustomed in his fingers, held it
up to the light. It was a sovereign, and he blinked in wonder at the
coin then at the giver, convinced that it was a trick. Then he
recognized Jonah, and a look of passionate fear and anger convulsed his
features. He threw down the coin as if it had burnt him, crying:

"No, I vill not take your cursed moneys. Give me back mine shop and
mine business that you stole from me. You are a rich man and ride in
your carriage, and I am the beggar, but I would not change with you.
The great gods shall mock at you. Money you shall have in plenty while
I starve, but never your heart's desire, for like a dog did you bite
the hand that fed you."

Suddenly his utterance was choked by a violent fit of coughing, and he
stared at Jonah, crazed with hate and prophetic fury. A crowd began to
gather, and Jonah, afraid of being recognized, walked rapidly away.

"Now yer can see fer yerself," he cried, sullenly.

"Yes, I see," said Clara, strangely excited; "and I think you would be
as cruel with a woman as you are with a man."

"I've given yer no cause ter say that," protested Jonah.

"Perhaps not," said Clara; "but that man won't last through the winter
unless he's cared for. And if he dies, his blood will be on your head,
and your luck will turn. His crazy talk made me shiver. Promise me to
do something for him."

"Ye're talkin' like a novelette," said Jonah, roughly.

But Paasch's words had struck a superstitious chord in Jonah, and he
went out of his way to find a plan for relieving the old man without
showing his hand. He consulted his solicitors, and then an
advertisement in the morning papers offered a reward to anyone giving
the whereabouts of Hans Paasch, who left Hassloch in Bavaria in 1860,
and who would hear of something to his advantage by calling on Harris &
Harris, solicitors. A month later Jonah held a receipt for twelve
pounds ten, signed by Hans Paasch, the first ins