"There's nothing queer about the letter!"--he said. "Blaxham's customer may have the willies--indeed, he as much as intimates that such is the case--but, thank God! we're not obliged to have a commission-in-lunacy appointed on everybody who makes a silly stock or bond purchase. If we were, we either would have no markets, or the courts would have time for nothing else. No! no! old man! take what the gods have given you and be glad. There's ten thousand a year in it! You can return to Northumberland, resume the old life, and be happy ever after;--or you can live here, and there, and everywhere. You're unattached--not even a light-o'-love to squander your money, and pester you for gowns and hats, and get in a hell of a temper--and be false to you, besides." "No, I haven't one of them, thank God!" laughed Croyden. "I've got troubles enough of my own. The present, for instance." "Troubles!" marvelled Macloud. "You haven't any troubles, now. This clears them all away." "It clears some of them away--if I take it." "Thunder! man, you're not thinking, seriously, of refusing?" "It will put me on 'easy street,'" Croyden observed. "So, why hesitate an instant?" "And it comes with remarkable timeliness--so timely, indeed, as to be suspicious." "Suspicious? Why suspicious? It's a bona fide offer." "It's a bona fide offer--there's no trouble on that score." "Then, what is the trouble?" "This," said Croyden: "I'm broke--finally. The Parmenter treasure is moonshine, so far as I'm concerned. I'm down on my uppers, so to speak--my only assets are some worthless bonds. Behold! along comes an offer for them at par--two hundred thousand dollars for nothing! I fancy, old man, there is a friend back of this offer--the only friend I have in the world--and I did not think that even he was kind and self-sacrificing enough to do it.--I'm grateful, Colin, grateful from the heart, believe me, but I can't take your money." "My money!" exclaimed Macloud--"you do me too much credit, Croyden. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I never thought of the bonds, or of helping you out, in your trouble. It's a way we have in Northumberland. We may feel for misfortune, but it rarely gets as far as our pockets. Don't imagine for a moment that I'm the purchaser. I'm not, though I wish, now, that I was." "Will you give me your word on that?" Croyden demanded. "I most assuredly will," Macloud answered. Croyden nodded. He was satisfied. "There is no one else!" he mused, "no one else!" He looked at the letter again.... "And, yet, it is very suspicious, very suspicious.... I wonder, could I ascertain the name of the purchaser of the stocks and bonds, from the Trust Company who held them as collateral?" "They won't know," said Macloud. "Blaxham & Company bought them at the public sale." "I could try the transfer agent, or the registrar." "They never tell anything, as you are aware," Macloud replied. "I could refuse to sell unless Blaxham & Company disclosed their customer."