"Isn't it your own?" the other asked in his turn, with an eager removal of all resentment from his manner. "'Aven't we both been got at by those two jackets? Of course I was sorry ever to 'ave trusted 'em an inch, and you were quite right to serve me as you did if what they'd been telling you 'ad been the truth; but, now you see it was all a pack of lies it's surely about time to stop treating me like a mad dog." "Then you really mean to stand by your side of the original arrangement?" "Always did," declared our captive; "never 'ad the slightest intention of doing anything else." "Then where's the first thing you promised me in fair exchange for what you destroyed last night? Where's Mr. Garland's note of hand?" "In my pocket-book, and that's in my pocket." "In case the worst comes to the worst," murmured Raffles in sly commentary, and with a sidelong glance at me. "What's that? Don't you believe me? I'll 'and it over this minute, if only you'll take these damned things off my wrists. There's no excuse for 'em now, you know!" Raffles shook his head. "I'd rather not trust myself within reach of your raw fists yet, prisoner. But my marshal will produce the note from your person if it's there." It was there, in a swollen pocket-book which I replaced otherwise intact while Raffles compared the signature on the note of hand with samples which he had brought with him for the purpose. "It's genuine enough," said Levy, with a sudden snarl and a lethal look that I intercepted at close quarters. "So I perceive," said Raffles. "And now I require an equally genuine signature to this little document which is also a part of your bond." The little document turned out to be a veritable Deed, engrossed on parchment, embossed with a ten-shilling stamp, and duly calling itself an INDENTURE, in fourteenth century capitals. So much I saw as I held it up for the prisoner to read over. The illegally legal instrument is still in existence, with its unpunctuated jargon about "hereditaments" and "fee simple," its "and whereas the said Daniel Levy" in every other line, and its eventual plain provision for "the said sum of £15,000 to remain charged upon the security of the hereditaments in the said recited Indenture ... until the expiration of one year computed from--" that summer's day in that empty tower! The whole thing had been properly and innocently prepared by old Mother Hubbard, the "little solicitor" whom Raffles had mentioned as having been in our house at school, from a copy of the original mortgage deed supplied in equal innocence by Mr. Garland. I sometimes wonder what those worthy citizens would have said, if they had dreamt for a moment under what conditions of acute duress their deed was to be signed!