t
about me and my affairs," he said. "But not much. Sufficient to whet
your curiosity, eh, Middlebrook?"

"I confess I should like to know more," I replied. "I agree with Miss
Raven--you must have seen a good deal of the queer side of life."

There was some fine old claret on the table between us; he pushed the
bottle over to me, motioning me to refill my glass. For a moment he
sat, a cigar in the corner of his lips, his hands in the armholes of
his waistcoat, silently reflecting.

"What's really puzzling you this time," he said suddenly, "is that
Quick affair--I know because I've not only read the newspapers, but
I've picked up a good deal of local gossip--never mind how. I've heard
a lot of your goings-on at Ravensdene Court, and the suspicions, and
so on. And I knew the Quicks--no man better, at one time, and I'll
tell you what I know. Not a nice story from any moral point of view,
but though it's a story of rough men, there's nothing in it at all
that need offend your ears, Miss Raven--nothing. It's just a story--an
instance--of some of the things that happen to Ishmaels, outcasts,
like me."

We made no answer, and he refilled his own glass, took a mouthful of
its contents, and glancing from one to the other of us, went on.

"You're both aware of my youthful career at Blyth?" he said. "You,
Middlebrook, are, anyway, from what you told me this afternoon, and I
gather that you put Miss Raven in possession of the facts. Well, I'll
start out from there--when I made the acquaintance of that temporary
bank-manager chap. Mind you, I'd about come to the end of my tether at
that time as regards money--I'd been pretty well fleeced by one or
another, largely through carelessness, largely through sheer
ignorance. I didn't lose all my money on the turf, Middlebrook, I can
assure you--I was robbed by more than one worthy man of my native
town--legally, of course, bless 'em! And it was that, I think, turned
me into the Ishmael I've been ever since--as men had robbed me, I
thought it a fair thing to get a bit of my own back. Now that
bank-manager chap was one of those fellows who are born with predatory
instincts--my impression of him, from what I recollect, is that he was
a born thief. Anyway, he and I, getting pretty thick with each other,
found out that we were just then actuated by similar ambitions--I from
sheer necessity, he, as I tell you, from temperament. And to cut
matters short, we determined to help ourselves out