a-respectable folk, they would be very sorry indeed to have it come
out that they were also money-lenders in London, and evidently very
extortionate ones. Hollis then said that that was his own opinion, and
it would influence the line he proposed to take. He said that he had a
cheque in his pocket, already made out for ten thou and pounds, and only
requiring filling up with the names of payee and drawer; he would like
to see Gabriel Chestermarke, tell him what he had discovered, offer him
the cheque in full satisfaction of young Lester's liabilities to the
Markham concern, and hint plainly that if his offer of it was not
accepted, he would take steps which would show that Gabriel Chestermarke
and Godwin Markham were one and the same person.

"Now, I had no objection to this. I had not told you of it, Neale, but I
had already determined to resign my position as manager at
Chestermarke's. I had grown tired of it. I was going to resign as soon
as I returned from my holiday. So I assented to Hollis's proposal, and
offered to accompany him to the Warren--I don't mind admitting that I
was a little--perhaps a good deal--eager to see how Gabriel would behave
when he discovered that his double dealing was found out--and known to
me. We therefore set off across Ellersdeane Hollow. I have been told
while lying here that some of you found the pipe which you, Betty, gave
me last Christmas, lying near the old tower--quite right. I lost it
there that night, as I was showing Hollis the view, in the moonlight,
from the top of the crags. I meant to pick it up as we returned, but
what happened put it completely out of my mind.

"Hollis and I crossed the moor and the high road and went into the
little lane, or carriage-drive, which leads to the Warren. Half-way down
it we met Joseph Chestermarke. He was coming away from the Warren--from
the garden. He, of course, wanted to know if we were going to see his
uncle. I told him that my companion, Mr. Frederick Hollis, a London
solicitor, had come specially from town to see Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke,
and that, being an old friend of mine, he had first come to see me.
Joseph therefore said that we were too late to find his uncle at home:
Gabriel, he went on, had been suffering terribly from insomnia, and, by
his doctor's advice, he was trying the effect of a long solitary walk
every night before going to bed, and he had just started out over the
moor at the back of his house. Turning to Hollis, he