’Look here!’ said he; ’this is all the cash I have, a crown and a halfpenny. Is a crown and a halfpenny enough to carry me across Cornwall and out of England? I want some blunt, and I will trouble you to find me some.’ ’Go along, you scoundrel! It is enough for me to have allowed you my old clothes—I will give you no further assistance.’ ’That is a pretty name to give me—scoundrel! Pray what reason have you for thus entitling me?’ ’Every reason. You and yours robbed Mirelle of what her father had left.’ Sampson laughed. ’Oh, this is beautiful! Virtuous innocence condemns impenitent vice. Brother John, we are both in the same box. It don’t become you to ride the virtuous horse; it trots beautifully along a smooth road, but I think I can lay something in its way will trip and tumble it over. You have had your pickings, and a d—d richer find yours was than mine.’ Herring looked at him speechless. Was this a random shot, or did he know anything? ’You are a proper person to act the moral character. James Strange left my father sole trustee of everything, did he not? How much of all he left did you allow him to finger, eh? How much did you keep back for yourself?’ Sampson paused for a reply. He stood opposite Herring, with his hands on his hips. ’Don’t you think it possible that Cousin Strange, in leaving Brazil, sent over as much ready money as he thought he might want, and put the bulk of his property into diamonds, which he could dispose of in London at any time? By his will he constituted my father sole trustee of everything—that is, of money and diamonds. My father never caught sight of the diamonds, never laid a finger on one of them, for a very good reason, they were stolen by virtuous John Herring.’ ’This is false.’ ’No, it is true. You did not rummage the trunk of Cousin Strange, or take them out, that I’ll allow; but you received the stolen jewels, and the receiver is as bad as the thief, is he not?’ Herring could not speak. ’My father was constituted trustee. If you had been honest, when you received these diamonds you would at once have taken them to him. You were not honest. You kept them.’ ’Sampson Trampleasure, I kept them only for Mirelle, in her interest. I knew the character of your father, I knew what he was doing with the rest of the money intrusted to him, and I would not risk the rest of her property.’ ’Who authorised you to keep it?’ ’I acted as my conscience directed.’ ’Conscience!’ exclaimed Sampson, derisively, ’I like to hear that word pleaded; it always means, when interpreted, self-interest. Some men follow their consciences as a gardener follows a wheelbarrow, by pushing it along before him. Answer me, would the law have authorised you to keep back the diamonds?’ ’No; the law would not.’ ’Then who authorised you? Did Mirelle? Did you consult her about them? I am at a loss to know what other authorisation you could find.’