suppose you do;--but you expected that I was to earn it by doing
your bidding;--didn't you?"

"And you have."

"Yes, I have; but how? You never heard of my cousin, did you;--Ferdinand
Lefroy of Kilbrack, Louisiana?"

"Heard of whom?"

"My cousin; Ferdinand Lefroy. He was very well known in his own State,
and in California too, till he died. He was a good fellow, but given to
drink. We used to tell him that if he would marry it would be better for
him;--but he never would;--he never did." Robert Lefroy as he said this
put his left hand into his trousers-pocket over the notes which he had
placed there, and drew a small revolver out of his pocket with the other
hand. "I am better prepared now," he said, "than when you had your
six-shooter under your pillow at Leavenworth."

"I do not believe a word of it. It's a lie," said Peacocke.

"Very well. You're a chap that's fond of travelling, and have got plenty
of money. You'd better go down to Louisiana and make your way straight
from New Orleans to Kilbrack. It ain't above forty miles to the
south-west, and there's a rail goes within fifteen miles of it. You'll
learn there all about Ferdinand Lefroy as was our cousin,--him as never
got married up to the day he died of drink and was buried at San
Francisco. They'll be very glad, I shouldn't wonder, to see that pretty
little picter of yours, because they was always uncommon fond of cousin
Ferdy at Kilbrack. And I'll tell you what; you'll be sure to come across
my brother Ferdy in them parts, and can tell him how you've seen me. You
can give him all the latest news, too, about his own wife. He'll be glad
to hear about her, poor woman." Mr. Peacocke listened to this without
saying a word since that last exclamation of his. It might be true. Why
should it not be true? If in truth there had been these two cousins of
the same name, what could be more likely than that his money should be
lured out of him by such a fraud as this? But yet,--yet, as he came to
think of it all, it could not be true. The chance of carrying such a
scheme to a successful issue would have been too small to induce the man
to act upon it from the day of his first appearance at Bowick. Nor was it
probable that there should have been another Ferdinand Lefroy unknown to
his wife; and the existence of such a one, if known to his wife, would
certainly have been made known to him.

"It's a lie," said he, "from beginning to end."

"Very