o--we
ain't heard of no Netherfields hereabouts."

Quick seemed indifferent to these remarks. He suddenly folded up the
map, returned it to me with a word of thanks, and plunging a hand in
his trousers' pocket, produced a fistful of gold coins.

"What's to pay?" he demanded. "Take it out o' that--all we've had, and
do you help yourself to a glass and a cigar." He flung a sovereign on
the table, and rose to his feet. "I must be stepping along," he
continued, looking at me. "If so be as there's another man seeking
for----"

But at that he checked himself, remaining silent until Claigue counted
out and handed over his change; silently, too, he pocketed it, and
turned to the door. Claigue stopped him with an arresting word and
motion of his hand.

"I say!" he said. "No business of mine, to be sure, but--don't you
show that money of yours over readily hereabouts--in places like this,
I mean. There's folk up and down these roads that 'ud track you for
miles on the chance of--eh, Jim?"

"Aye--and farther!" assented Jim. "Keep it close, master."

Quick listened quietly--just as quietly he slipped a hand to his hip
pocket, brought it back to the front and showed a revolver.

"That and me, together--eh?" he said significantly. "Bad look-out for
anybody that came between us and the light."

"They might come between you and the dark," retorted Claigue. "Take
care of yourself! 'Tisn't a wise thing to flash a handful of gold
about, my lad."

Quick made no remark. He walked out on to the cobbled pavement in
front of the inn, and when I had paid Claigue for my modest lunch, and
had asked how far it was to Ravensdene Court, I followed him. He was
still in a brown study, and stood staring about him with moody eyes.

"Well?" I said, still inquisitive about this apparently mysterious
man. "What next? Are you going on with your search?"

He scraped the point of a boot on the cobble-stones for awhile, gazing
downwards almost as if he expected to unearth something; suddenly he
raised his eyes and gave me a franker look than I had so far had from
him.

"Master," he said, in a low voice, and with a side glance at the open
door of the inn, "I'll tell you a bit more than I've said
before--you're a gentleman, I can see, and such keeps counsel. I've an
object--and a particular object!--in finding them graves. That's why
I've travelled all this way--as you might say, from one end of England
to the other. And now, arriving where they