egs up on the opposite seat.

He might have dropped a bombshell amongst them with less effect. Every
newspaper was lowered, and every one stared at this bold intruder.
Then they turned to Mr. Bultiwell. It seemed fittest that he should
deal with the matter. Unfortunately, he, too, seemed temporarily
bereft of words.

"I seem to have startled you all a bit, what?" Jacob continued, with
the air of one thoroughly enjoying the sensation he had produced.
"I've got my ticket all right. Here you are," he went on, producing
it,--"first-class to Liverpool Street. Thought I'd like to have a look
at you all once more. Sorry to see you're not looking quite your old
self, Mr. Bultiwell. Nasty things, these bad debts, eh? Three last
week, I noticed. You'll have to be careful down Bristol way. Things
there are pretty dicky."

"It would be more becoming on your part, sir," Mr. Bultiwell
pronounced furiously, "if you were to hold your tongue about bad
debts."

Jacob snapped his fingers.

"I don't owe any man a farthing," he declared.

"An undischarged bankrupt--"

"Sold again," Jacob interrupted amiably. "Got my discharge last week."

Mr. Bultiwell found his tongue at the same time that he lost his
temper.

"So that's the reason you're butting in here amongst gentlemen whom
you've lost the right to associate with!" he exclaimed. "You think
because you're whitewashed by the courts you can count yourself an
honest man again, eh? You think that because--"

"Wrong--all wrong," Jacob interrupted once more, with ever-increasing
geniality. "You'll have to guess again."

Mr. Groome--the very superior Mr. Groome, who had married a relative
of Mr. Bultiwell's, and who occasionally wore an eyeglass and was seen
in the West End--intervened with gentle sarcasm.

"Mr. Pratt has perhaps come to tell us that it is his intention to
celebrate the granting of his discharge by paying his debts in full."

Jacob glanced at the speaker with the air of one moved to admiration.

"Mr. Groome, sir," he pronounced, "you are a wizard! You must have
seen right through into the breast pocket of my coat. Allow me to read
you a couple of letters."

He produced these amazing documents, leisurely unfolding the first.
There was no question of newspapers now.

"You will remember," he said, "that I came to grief because I stood
bondsman to my brother, who was out prospecting for oil lands in
America. 'Disgraceful speculation' Mr. Bultiwell called it, I