connect their intellects. Sentimentally, life held a common
cause, which they discovered one day, when Mr. Fred Pole met Mr. Harold
de Vinne at lunch to discuss a matter belonging neither to the realms
of industrialism nor the mercantile marine, being, in fact, the
question of Mr. de Vinne leasing or renting Mr. Pole's handsome
riverside property at Maidenhead for the term of six months.

They might not have met even under these circumstances, but for the
fact that some dispute arose as to who was to pay the gardener. That
matter had been amicably settled, and the two had reached the coffee
stage of their luncheon, when Mr. de Vinne mentioned the
inadvisability--as a rule--of discussing business matters at lunch, and
cited a deplorable happening when an interested eavesdropper had
overheard certain important negotiations and had most unscrupulously
taken advantage of his discovery.

"One of these days," said Mr. de Vinne between his teeth, "I'll be even
with that gentleman." (He did not call him a gentleman.) "I'll give
him Tibbetts! He'll be sorry he was ever born."

"Tibbetts?" said Mr. Fred Pole, sitting bolt upright. "Not Bones?"

The other nodded and seemed surprised.

"You don't know the dear fellow, do you?" he asked, only he did not use
the expression "dear fellow."

"Know him?" said Mr. Fred, taking a long breath. "I should jolly well
say I did know him. And my brother Joe knows him. That fellow----"

"That fellow----" began Mr. de Vinne, and for several minutes they
talked together in terms which were uncomplimentary to Augustus
Tibbetts.

It appeared, though they did not put the matter so crudely, that they
had both been engaged in schemes for robbing Bones, and that in the
pursuance of their laudable plans they had found themselves robbed by
Bones.

Mr. de Vinne ordered another coffee and prepared to make an afternoon
of it. They discussed Bones from several aspects and in various
lights, none of which revealed his moral complexion at its best.

"And believe me," said Mr. de Vinne at the conclusion of his address
for the prosecution, "there's money to be made out of that fellow.
Why, I believe he has three hundred thousand pounds."

"Three hundred and forty thousand," said the more accurate Mr. Fred.

"A smart man could get it all," said Harold de Vinne, with conviction.
"And when I say a smart man, I mean two smart men. I never thought
that he had done anybody but me. It's funny I