“Let me see the bust again, if you please,” said Gilead. His heart was beating a little as the moneylender approached and exposed the safe. He was concerned and relieved in one to observe that it showed no signs of its baking. Mr Colfox opened the door, uttered a sharp exclamation, and fell back a step. But he was too astute a rascal to betray the cause of his agitation. The next moment he had produced the bust, and swung to the door upon his secret. But not quickly enough for the observant eyes that had followed him. In that moment Gilead had seen the hand, or rather what remained of it--_and it was sunk into just a shapeless pancake of wax upon the floor of the safe_. Colfox’s face was a little white, and his lips a little shaky, as he placed the bust on the table. “There it is, sir,” he said, “and the offer stands.” Gilead, a stern triumphant light in his eyes, faced him. “I have changed my mind, sir,” he said. “I desire a deal, but in paper, not in marble. Where is the promissory note you hold in the name of Felix Dobell?” The moneylender turned momentarily as white as the bust itself, but recovered his nerve, and stood staring, between astonishment and anger. “What’s this?” he exclaimed. “Who the devil are you?” “My name, sir,” answered the client, “is Gilead Balm.” “Gilead--!” the man started back; then fawned in the most fulsome spirit of sycophancy. “Mr Balm!--you--you surprise me, sir.” “I wish for that paper.” “You shall have it, sir.” He slunk to the other safe, extracted a note, and returned with it. “You shall have it, sir--I’m sure, sir, to oblige Mr Balm--at the price of the accommodation.” Gilead accepted the draft and tore it into fifty pieces. “There is your accommodation, sir,” he said. “I give you what you gave for it--nothing.” He strode to the door and turned. The other, cowering white and speechless, made no attempt to follow him. “Your villainy, sir,” said Gilead, “is known and recorded against you. Any further attempt on your part to blackmail the unhappy young man, the victim of this your most cowardly method of persecution, will be made very effectively to recoil upon your own head. All my wealth, sir, all the influence I possess should be devoted to the destruction of a reptile so noisome. You can produce your proofs if you will; they will avail nothing against the truth which has been very clearly exposed in their despite. Think it enough if they serve to defend you in the charge of felony which will most certainly follow your least endeavour to re-set the toils which have been broken. The law, sir, the law is already acquainted with your practices.” He flung out of the room so violently that he literally floored the anæmic boy, who had been listening at the keyhole. For some minutes after he had gone, the moneylender stood, in a state of semi-stupefaction, looking from one safe to the other. Then, with an explosive sigh, he tottered to the smaller.