"The offer," continued Hughie steadily, "is open for five minutes. If you accept it I will write you a cheque now, and you will sit down and write a letter formally breaking off, on your own initiative, any engagement or understanding you may have entered into with Miss Gaymer, and undertaking never to come near her again; and I will see she gets it. If not--well, you'll be sorry, for you'll never make such a good bargain by any other means." Haliburton eyed him curiously. "Is this your own money you are offering me?" he said. "It is," said Hughie, looking at his watch. "Three minutes left." "Won't it make rather a hole in your capital account?" "It will. In fact, hole won't be the word for it! But it will be worth it." Intelligence dawned upon Mr. Haliburton. "I see," he said slowly. "You expect to recoup yourself later, when--when the marriage settlements are drawn up, eh? Or perhaps," he added sarcastically, "eighteen months of careful trusteeship have put you in a position to afford this extravagance!" Hughie was surprised at his own self-control. Only the little pulse which Joan had noticed beat assiduously in his right temple. "Fifteen seconds!" he said. "Do you take this offer, Mr. Haliburton?" "No." "Right!" Hughie put his watch back into his pocket and regarded the misguided blackmailer before him rather in the manner of a benevolent policeman standing over a small boy with a cigarette. "Your last few remarks," he said, "have been so offensive that I know you would not have had the pluck to make them unless you thought you had me absolutely under your thumb. But I may as well proceed to my final move, and terminate this interview. I am very averse to taking this particular step, because its results may be awkward, as I said, for Miss Gaymer. That is why I offered you practically all the available money I have to call the deal off. But I see I can't help myself. Now, Haliburton,--by the way, I forgot to mention that your real name is Spratt: you seem to have become a big fish since you took to fortune-hunting,--I am going to make you break off your engagement. I am going to pay you a high compliment. I am going to give you a piece of information, known only to myself and Miss Gaymer's banker, for which you will ultimately be very grateful, and the knowledge of which will cause you, when you get outside (which will be very soon now), to kick yourself for a blamed fool because you did not accept my first offer." Mr. Haliburton-Spratt shuffled his feet a trifle uneasily, and Hughie continued:-- "You seem to be suffering from an aggravated attack of the prevailing impression that Miss Gaymer is an heiress. Her fortune has been variously estimated by tea-table experts at anything from forty to a hundred thousand pounds. I will now tell you what it really is. Get off the table: I want to open that dispatch-box."