"'Yes,' continued M'Flummery, 'my splendid sporting service,--quite new,--never used,--made not six months since by Rundell and Bridge. How could I have forgotten this!' "'Sit down, my dear sir,' said Snaps. 'Your recollection of this _com-plete-ly_ alters the case! Perhaps we _can_ manage the matter.' "'But money is money, I am afraid; and holders are firm, Mr. Snaps,' said M'Flummery, with what I thought the most devilish and malicious laugh that ever was uttered. "'True, true,' replied my master; 'but there is a mode of tempting even a miser.' "'I think there is,' said M'Flummery, just as Old Nick might have spoken the words, and looking Snaps full in the face. "'Where is the chest?" inquired Snaps. "There is no lien on it?' he continued gravely. 'It is not at----" "'My uncle's? No, no!' "'Satisfactory so far. What might it have cost you?'--'Three thousand pounds.' "'And you want _two_. It is possible, my dear sir, that the matter _can_ be managed. I'll see about it directly. Call here to-morrow with the chest, and we'll see what can be done. I'll go into the City directly.' "'Then I may as well go with you,' said M'Flummery; 'I will look in at Rundell's on our way, where you can assure yourself of the fact and value of the purchase.' So saying, my master and his client went out." "It does not yet seem clear to me," said the president, interrupting Pounce at this period of his story, "how the gentleman came to be hung. He seems to have been an honest man, who had more money than he thought he had." "No, he had not," said Pounce; "for, before he went out of the office, I asked him for the fare of the coach. 'Oh!' said he, quite cool, 'my little quill-driver, I'll owe you that till to-morrow.'" "Well," resumed Pounce, after the waiter had been declared "in the room," had "taken his orders," and gone "out of the room," and re-entered the room with the said orders _executed_, preparatory (paradoxical as it may read) to their being _despatched_,--"Well," said Pounce, "when Mr. Snaps returned in the afternoon, he said to me, rubbing his hands, 'Pounce, it's all right! I have seen the chest of plate. I have handled and examined every article,--solid and beautiful! as fine a service as ever was turned out of hand.' "'Glad to hear it, sir!' says I; 'I had my doubts;'--throwing as much of knowingness into my look as befitted a confidential managing common law-clerk when speaking to his governor. "'And so had I,' said Snaps seriously: 'but what do you think, Pounce?' and my master beckoned me close to him. "'What _should_ I think, sir?' said I, deferentially,--'Why, he not only bought this most splendid service of plate I ever saw--massive--solid; but--but--' "'Yes, sir?'--'But he actually paid for it!' said Snaps; giving me a playful dig in the ribs with one hand, while he took a huge pinch of snuff in the other, snapping the dust off his fingers as though so many crackers were exploding.