ing, the captain was sitting whistling on the step of the
door, waiting for the clerk to come down the street with his key and open
it. But instead of the clerk there came the master, with whom the
captain fraternised on the spot to an extent that utterly confounded him.

As he personally knew both Hugh and Alfred, there was no difficulty in
obtaining immediate access to such of the father's papers as were in his
keeping. These were chiefly old letters and cash accounts; from which
the captain, with a shrewdness and despatch that left the lawyer far
behind, established with perfect clearness, by noon, the following
particulars:--

That one Lawrence Clissold had borrowed of the deceased, at a time when
he was a thriving young tradesman in the town of Barnstaple, the sum of
five hundred pounds. That he had borrowed it on the written statement
that it was to be laid out in furtherance of a speculation which he
expected would raise him to independence; he being, at the time of
writing that letter, no more than a clerk in the house of Dringworth
Brothers, America Square, London. That the money was borrowed for a
stipulated period; but that, when the term was out, the aforesaid
speculation failed, and Clissold was without means of repayment. That,
hereupon, he had written to his creditor, in no very persuasive terms,
vaguely requesting further time. That the creditor had refused this
concession, declaring that he could not afford delay. That Clissold then
paid the debt, accompanying the remittance of the money with an angry
letter describing it as having been advanced by a relative to save him
from ruin. That, in acknowlodging the receipt, Raybrock had cautioned
Clissold to seek to borrow money of him no more, as he would never so
risk money again.

Before the lawyer the captain said never a word in reference to these
discoveries. But when the papers had been put back in their box, and he
and his two companions were well out of the office, his right leg
suffered for it, and he said,--

"So far this run's begun with a fair wind and a prosperous; for don't you
see that all this agrees with that dutiful trust in his father maintained
by the slow member of the Raybrock family?"

Whether the brothers had seen it before or no, they saw it now. Not that
the captain gave them much time to contemplate the state of things at
their ease, for he instantly whipped them into a chaise again, and bore
them off to Steepways. A