e law, sir, in that island, consisted practically of the
Attorney General and the Solicitor General; and these gentlemen were
both retained by the agent. Consequently there was no solicitor in the
island to take up the case against him.

RANKIN. Is such a thing possible to-day in the British Empire?

SIR HOWARD (calmly). Oh, quite. Quite.

LADY CICELY. But could not a firstrate solicitor have been sent out from
London?

SIR HOWARD. No doubt, by paying him enough to compensate him for
giving up his London practice: that is, rather more than there was any
reasonable likelihood of the estate proving worth.

RANKIN. Then the estate was lost?

SIR HOWARD. Not permanently. It is in my hands at present.

RANKIN. Then how did ye get it back?

SIR HOWARD (with crafty enjoyment of his own cunning). By hoisting the
rogue with his own petard. I had to leave matters as they were for many
years; for I had my own position in the world to make. But at last I
made it. In the course of a holiday trip to the West Indies, I found
that this dishonest agent had left the island, and placed the estate in
the hands of an agent of his own, whom he was foolish enough to pay very
badly. I put the case before that agent; and he decided to treat the
estate as my property. The robber now found himself in exactly the same
position he had formerly forced me into. Nobody in the island would
act against me, least of all the Attorney and Solicitor General, who
appreciated my influence at the Colonial Office. And so I got the estate
back. "The mills of the gods grind slowly," Mr. Rankin; "but they grind
exceeding small."

LADY CICELY. Now I suppose if I'd done such a clever thing in England,
you'd have sent me to prison.

SIR HOWARD. Probably, unless you had taken care to keep outside the law
against conspiracy. Whenever you wish to do anything against the law,
Cicely, always consult a good solicitor first.

LADY CICELY. So I do. But suppose your agent takes it into his head to
give the estate back to his wicked old employer!

SIR HOWARD. I heartily wish he would.

RANKIN (openeyed). You wish he WOULD!!

SIR HOWARD. Yes. A few years ago the collapse of the West Indian sugar
industry converted the income of the estate into an annual loss of
about 150 pounds a year. If I can't sell it soon, I shall simply abandon
it--unless you, Mr. Rankin, would like to take it as a present.

RANKIN (laughing). I thank your lordship: we have estates enough