it. If
it was of great importance to Mr. Benedict, Mr. Belcher believed that it
had been destroyed.

He had great curiosity concerning its contents, and determined to
deliver it into Mr. Benedict's hand; so, at the conclusion of his
engagement with Mr. Belcher's agent, he announced to his friends that he
had accepted Jim Fenton's invitation to visit the new hotel at Number
Nine, and enjoy a week of sport in the woods.

Before he returned, he became entirely familiar with the contents of
the letter, and, if he brought it back with him on his return to
Sevenoaks, it was for deposit in the post-office, directed to James
Balfour in the handwriting of Paul Benedict.

The contents of this note were of such importance in the establishment
of justice that Yates, still doubtful of the propriety of his act, was
able to justify it to his conscience. Under the circumstances, it
belonged to the man to whom it was addressed, and not to Mr. Belcher at
all. His own act might be doubtful, but it was in the interest of fair
dealing, and in opposition to the schemes of a consummate rascal, to
whom he owed neither respect nor good-will. He would stand by it, and
take the consequences of it.

Were Mrs. Dillingham and Sam Yates justifiable in their treachery to Mr.
Belcher? A nice question this, in casuistry! Certainly they had done as
they would have been done by, had he been in their circumstances and
they in his. He, at least, who had tried to debauch both of them, could
reasonably find no fault with them. Their act was the natural result of
his own influence. It was fruit from seeds of his own sowing. Had he
ever approached them with a single noble and unselfish motive, neither
of them could have betrayed him.

CHAPTER XXV.

IN WHICH THE GENERAL GOES THROUGH A GREAT MANY TRIALS AND MEETS AT LAST
THE ONE HE HAS SO LONG ANTICIPATED.

The fact that the General had deposited the proceeds of his foreign
sales of arms with a European banking house, ostensibly subject to draft
for the materials of his manufactures, has already been alluded to. This
deposit had been augmented by subsequent sales, until it amounted to an
imposing sum, which Mrs. Dillingham ascertained, from the little
account-book, to be drawing a low rate of interest. With the proprietor,
this heavy foreign deposit was partly a measure of personal safety, and
partly a measure of projected iniquity. He had the instinct to provide
against any possible contingencie