"Now we may as well replace the earth," he remarked. "Fill it all up again?" asked Bellmark. "Yes; we have provided a thoroughly disintegrated subsoil. That is the great thing. A depth of six inches is sufficient merely for the roots." There was only one remark passed during the operation. "I think I should plant the tree just over where the tin was," Carrados suggested. "You might like to mark the exact spot." And there the hawthorn was placed. Bellmark, usually the most careful and methodical of men, left the tools where they were, in spite of a threatening shower. Strangely silent, Elsie led the way back to the house and taking the men into the drawing-room switched on the light. "I think you have a tin opener, Mrs Bellmark?" Elsie, who had been waiting for him to speak, almost jumped at the simple inquiry. Then she went into the next room and returned with the bull-headed utensil. "Here it is," she said, in a voice that would have amused her at any other time. "Mr Bellmark will perhaps disclose our find." Bellmark put the soily tin down on Elsie's best table-cover without eliciting a word of reproach, grasped it firmly with his left hand, and worked the opener round the top. "Only paper!" he exclaimed, and without touching the contents he passed the tin into Carrados's hands. The blind man dexterously twirled out a little roll that crinkled pleasantly to the ear, and began counting the leaves with a steady finger. "They're bank-notes!" whispered Elsie in an awestruck voice. She caught sight of a further detail. "Bank-notes for a hundred pounds each. And there are dozens of them!" "Fifty, there should be," dropped Carrados between his figures. "Twenty-five, twenty-six----" "Good God," murmured Bellmark; "that's five thousand pounds!" "Fifty," concluded Carrados, straightening the edges of the sheaf. "It is always satisfactory to find that one's calculations are exact." He detached the upper ten notes and held them out. "Mrs Bellmark, will you accept one thousand pounds as a full legal discharge of any claim that you may have on this property?" "Me--I?" she stammered. "But I have no right to any in any circumstances. It has nothing to do with us."