was a ghastly shame of Weevil to send you."

"Oh, come to think of it quietly, he was right enough! I dare say I
could have got out of the pickle by speaking, but I was obstinate.
Solitude isn't so bad," he added cheerfully. "It helps you to chew the
cud of reflection."

"And a bitter cud it is sometimes. That's why I've come. It's better for
two to try their teeth on it than one."

"It's very good of you, Paul, coming to me. Is Harry all right?"

"Oh, he's all right, though he was rather cut up at your having to come
here for him. It's Newall you'll have to look out for. He won't be
satisfied till he's paid back that blow you gave him. He told me as
much."

"What did he say? Tell me the exact words."

"After you had gone away with Mr. Weevil, I told Newall what I
thought--that he had acted meanly in not speaking up. 'Why should I have
spoken?' he burst out. 'I didn't want to speak. All I wanted was to get
that blow back that Moncrief gave me; and I'll have it back, if I die
for it!'"

A sound of footsteps could be heard in the next room. In his desire to
console Stanley in his solitude, Paul had said nothing about what he had
seen in the master's room, though it had been uppermost in his mind all
the time he had been speaking to Stanley.

"Hallo! What's that? Weevil's guest on the move. Who is he, I wonder?"

"Hush! Not so loud!" cautioned Paul, clutching Stanley by the arm. "You
would never guess. You remember what happened to me on the night I took
that packet to Oakville?"

Paul had confided to his chum all that happened on that night.

"Don't I? And I'm not likely to forget it in a hurry. I only wish that
I'd been with you then, just as you're with me now. What about it?"

"What about it? Why, the man in the next room is Israel Zuker."

"Paul!" cried Stanley, rising to his feet in amazement.

"Hush--don't I tell you!"--again clutching him by the arm, and pressing
him to his former position. "Israel Zuker! I'm sure of it."

"But what can he want with Mr. Weevil, and what can Weevil want with
him?"

"Ask me another. That's what floors me. Listen! Weevil is letting him
out."

They remained perfectly silent, as they listened to the footsteps in the
passage; at first they were quite close, then they died away. Presently
they heard Mr. Weevil returning alone. He paused as he was on the point
of entering his own door, as though struck with an idea.

"What's he up to now?" whispered Paul.

They cou