n!
It's a go!"

Monty--no one at Buckomari had ever known of any other name for
him--stretched out a long hand, with delicate tapering fingers, and let
it rest for a moment gingerly in the thick, brown palm of his companion.
Then he glanced stealthily over his shoulder and his eyes gleamed.

"I think, if you will allow me, Trent, I will just moisten my lips--no
more--with some of that excellent brandy."

Trent caught his arm and held it firmly.

"No, you don't," he said, shaking his head. "That's the last bottle, and
we've got the journey back. We'll keep that, in case of fever."

A struggle went on in the face of the man whose hot breath fell upon
Trent's cheek. It was the usual thing--the disappointment of the baffled
drunkard--a little more terrible in his case perhaps because of the
remnants of refinement still to be traced in his well-shaped features.
His weak eyes for once were eloquent, but with the eloquence of cupidity
and unwholesome craving, his lean cheeks twitched and his hands shook.

"Just a drop, Trent!" he pleaded. "I'm not feeling well, indeed I'm not!
The odours here are so foul. A liqueur-glassful will do me all the good
in the world."

"You won't get it, Monty, so it's no use whining," Trent said bluntly.
"I've given way to you too much already. Buck up, man! We're on the
threshold of fortune and we need all our wits about us."

"Of fortune--fortune!" Monty's head dropped upon his chest, his nostrils
dilated, he seemed to fall into a state of stupor. Trent watched him
half curiously, half contemptuously.

"You're terribly keen on money-making for an old 'un," he remarked,
after a somewhat lengthy pause. "What do you want to do with it?"

"To do with it!" The old man raised his head. "To do with it!" The gleam
of reawakened desire lit up his face. He sat for a moment thinking. Then
he laughed softly.

"I will tell you, Master Scarlett Trent," he said, "I will tell you why
I crave for wealth. You are a young and an ignorant man. Amongst
other things you do not know what money will buy. You have your coarse
pleasures I do not doubt, which seem sweet to you! Beyond them--what?
A tasteless and barbaric display, a vulgar generosity, an ignorant and
purposeless prodigality. Bah! How different it is with those who know!
There are many things, my young friend, which I learned in my younger
days, and amongst them was the knowledge of how to spend money. How to
spend it, you understand! It is an a