ire. So I told him that matters
was bad enough but while there was life there was hope--the sort o'
thing you _have_ to say: and I went on that the business would be all in
a mess for some time to come, and I hoped he'd got all his papers at
home, which would save trouble. 'Papers?' said he. 'Not I!'--and I
wonder I didn' drop: you might have knocked me down with a feather.
'Papers?' said he. 'I haven't seen 'em for months. _I_ don't trouble
about papers! But you'll find 'em in the safe all right, though I
haven't seen 'em for months.' Those were the very words he used: and
nothin' would interest him but to hear how the invalid was doin'.
He went off, cheerful as a chaffinch. It's plain to me," Fancy wound
up, "that he hasn't the papers. He trusted you, to start with, and he's
gone on trustin' you and the master. Didn' you intejuce him?"

"Sure enough I did," Cai allowed. "But--confound it, you know!--'Bias
Hunken isn't a child."

"Oh! if that contents you--" But well she knew it did not.

"Mr Rogers never would--"

"I've told you," said Fancy, "more'n ever I ought to have told.
There's no knowin', they say, what a man'll do when he's in Queer
Street: _and_ the papers have gone: _and_ Cap'n Hunken thinks they're in
the safe, where they ain't: _and_ I come to you first, as used to be his
friend."

"Good Lord '" Cai stood erect. "If--if--"

"That's so," assented Fancy, seated and nodding. "If--"

"But it can't be!"

"But if it _is?_" She slipped from her chair and stood, still facing
him.

He stared at her blankly. "Poor old 'Bias!" he murmured. "But it can't
be."

"Right O! if you _will_ have it so. But, you see, I didn' put the
question out o' curiosity altogether."

"The question? What question?"

"Why, about Mrs Bosenna."

"What has Mrs Bosenna to do with--Oh, ay, to be sure! You're meanin'
that hundred pounds." His wits were not very clear for the moment.

"No, I'm not," said Fancy, moving to the door. In the act of opening it
she paused. "'Twas through you, I reckon, he first trusted master with
his money."

"I--I never suggested it," stammered Cai.

"I'm not sayin' you did," the girl answered back coldly. "But he went
to master for your sake, because you was his friend and he had such a
belief in you. Just you think that out."

With a nod of the head she was gone.

Before leaving the house she visited the kitchen, to bid good-night to
Mrs Bowldler. But Mrs Bowldler w