--'Ay, and--the devil take it!--I've let Rogers see, lately, that 'Bias and I had dissolved partnership and burnt the papers! 'Twouldn't take more than that to persuade Rogers he was quit of the old obligation towards 'Bias--himself in difficulties too, and 'Bias's money under his hand.' --'Good Lord! . . . Suppose the fellow even allowed to himself that he was _helping_ me! If Mrs Bosenna--?' At this point Cai came to a full stop, appalled. Be it repeated that neither he nor 'Bias had wooed Mrs Bosenna for her wealth; nor until now had her wealth presented itself to either save in comfortable after-thought. Cai sat very still for a while. Then drawing quickly at his pipe, he found that it was smoked out. He arose to tap the bowl upon the bars of the grate. But they were masked and muffled by Mrs Bowldler's screen of shavings, and he wandered to the open window to knock out the ashes upon the slate ledge. Returning to the fireplace, he reached out a hand for the tobacco-jar, but arrested it, and laying his pipe down on the table, did something clean contrary to habit. He went to the cupboard, fetched out decanter, water-jug, and glass, and mixed himself a stiff brandy-and-water. "Hullo!" said a voice outside the window. "I didn' know as you indulged between meals." It was Mr Philp, staring in. "I heard you tappin' on the window-ledge, and I thought maybe you had caught sight o' me," suggested Mr Philp. "But I hadn't," said Cai, somewhat confused. "I said to myself, 'He's beckonin' me in for a chat': and no wonder if 'tis true what they're tellin' down in the town." "Well, I wasn't," said Cai, gulping his brandy-and-water hardily. "But what are they tellin'?" "There's some," mused Mr Philp, "as don't approve of solitary drinkin'. Narrow-minded bodies _I_ call 'em. When a man is in luck's way, who's to blame his fillin' a glass to it--though some o' course prefers to call in their naybours; an' _that's_ a good old custom too." Cai ignored the hint. "What are they tellin' down in the town?" "All sorts o' things, from mirth to mournin'. They say, for instance, as you and the Widow have fixed it all up to be married this side o' Jubilee." "That's a lie, anyway." "And others will have it as the engagement's broken off by reason of your losin' all your money in Johnny Rogers's smash?" "And that," said Cai, "is just as true as the other. But who says that Rogers has gone smash?" "Everyone. I tackled Tabb upon the subject this mornin', and he couldn' deny it. The man's clean scat. He's been speckilatin' for years: I always looked for this to be the end, and when they told me the _Saltypool_ wasn't insured, why, I drew my conclusions. As I was sayin' to Cap'n Hunken just now--" "Eh? . . . Where is he?" "Who?" "'Bias Hunken. You said as you been speakin' with him--" "Ay, to be sure, over his garden wall. I looked over and saw him weedin' among the rose-bushes, an' pulled up to give him the time o' day."