"Well, anyhow, he wanted me to be called to the Bar or something of that
kind, and then there was a fuss about money--his ideas of an allowance
are rather old fashioned, as you know. And then you were good enough to
help me with that loan, and--well, that's all, isn't it?"

Mr. Rattar had been listening with extreme attention. He now nodded, and
a smile for a moment seemed to light his chilly eyes.

"I see that you quite realise your position, Mr. Cromarty," he said.

"Realise it!" cried the young man. "My God, I'm in a worse hole----" he
broke off abruptly.

"Worse than you have admitted to me?" said Simon quickly and again with
a smile in his eye.

Malcolm Cromarty hesitated, "Sir Reginald is so damned narrow! If he
wants to drive me to the devil--well, let him! But I say, Mr. Rattar,
what are you going to do?"

For some moments Simon said nothing. At length he answered:

"I shall not press for repayment at present."

His visitor rose with a sigh of relief and as he said good-bye his
condescending manner returned as readily as it had gone.

"Good morning and many thanks," said he, and then hesitated for an
instant. "You couldn't let me have a very small cheque, just to be going
on with, could you?"

"Not this morning, Mr. Cromarty."

Mr. Cromarty's look of despair returned.

"Well," he cried darkly as he strode to the door, "people who treat a
man in my position like this are responsible for--er----!" The banging
of the door left their precise responsibility in doubt.

Simon Rattar gazed after him with an odd expression. It seemed to
contain a considerable infusion of complacency. And then he rang for his
clerk.

"Get me the Cromarty estate letter book," he commanded.

The book was brought and this time he had about ten minutes to himself
before the clerk entered again.

"Mr. Cromarty of Stanesland to see you, sir," he announced.

This announcement seemed to set the lawyer thinking hard. Then in his
abrupt way he said:

"Show him in."

IV

THE MAN FROM THE WEST

Mr. Rattar's second visitor was of a different type. Mr. Cromarty of
Stanesland stood about 6 feet two and had nothing artistic in his
appearance, being a lean strapping man in the neighbourhood of forty,
with a keen, thin, weather-beaten face chiefly remarkable for its
straight sharp nose, compressed lips, reddish eye-brows, puckered into a
slight habitual frown, and the fact that the keen look of the whole was
expressed by