-but I have got it--a
Bank-of-England note of L100--locked up in that desk;" and he poked the
end of his cane against the brass lock of it viciously. "There it is,
and there are the papers you work at; and there are two keys--I've got
one and you have the other--and devil another key in or out of the house
has any one living. Well, do you begin to see? Don't mind. I don't want
any d----d lying about it."

Feltram was indeed beginning to see that he was suspected of something
very bad, but exactly what, he was not yet sure; and being a man of that
unhappy temperament which shrinks from suspicion, as others do from
detection, he looked very much put out indeed.

"Ha, ha! I think we do begin to see," said Sir Bale savagely. "It's a
bore, I know, troubling a fellow with a story that he knows before; but
I'll make mine short. When I take my key, intending to send the note to
pay the crown and quit-rents that you know--you--you--no matter--you
know well enough must be paid, I open it so--and so--and look _there_,
where I left it, for my note; and the note's gone--you understand, the
note's _gone_!"

Here was a pause, during which, under the Baronet's hard insulting eye,
poor Feltram winced, and cleared his voice, and essayed to speak, but
said nothing.

"It's gone, and we know where. Now, Mr. Feltram, _I_ did not steal that
note, and no one but you and I have access to this desk. You wish to go
away, and I have no objection to that--but d--n me if you take away that
note with you; and you may as well produce it now and here, as hereafter
in a worse place."

"O, my good heaven!" exclaimed poor Feltram at last. "I'm very ill."

"So you are, of course. It takes a stiff emetic to get all that money
off a fellow's stomach; and it's like parting with a tooth to give up a
bank-note. Of course you're ill, but that's no sign of innocence, and
I'm no fool. You had better give the thing up quietly."

"May my Maker strike me----"

"So He will, you d----d rascal, if there's justice in heaven, unless you
produce the money. I don't want to hang you. I'm willing to let you off
if you'll let me, but I'm cursed if I let my note off along with you;
and unless you give it up forthwith, I'll get a warrant and have you
searched, pockets, bag, and baggage."

"Lord! am I awake?" exclaimed Philip Feltram.

"Wide awake, and so am I," replied Sir Bale. "You don't happen to have
got it about you?"

"God forbid, sir! O, Sir--O, Sir Bale--wh