Then I bit my lip; but it was too late. "Yes," said the other, very gravely. "I can see that you remember. It was your cousin who brought them up from Hare Street. He found them all in a little hiding-hole: and conceived it to be his duty--" "His duty!" I cried. "Good God! why--" Then again I checked myself. "Mr. Chiffinch," said I, "I remember the paper perfectly: at least I remember that I had it, though I have never read it or thought anything of it." "It is in very easy cypher, sir," said he, with some severity. "Well; it was too hard for me," I said. "Then why did you not shew it to me?" he asked. "Lord! man," I said, "I tell you it was gone clean from my memory. I got it from Rumbald a great while ago--a year or two at the least before the Plot. It was on my mind to send it to you; but I did not. I had no idea that it was of the least importance." "A letter, in cypher, and from Rumbald! And you thought it of no importance--even though the names of my Lord Shaftesbury and half a dozen others are written in full!" "I tell you I forgot it," I said sullenly, for I had not looked for suspicion from this man. He still looked at me, as if searching my face: and I suppose that I presented the very picture of an unmasked villain; for the whole affair was so surprising and unexpected that I was completely taken aback. "Well," he said, "if you had but shewn me that paper, we could have forestalled the whole affair." "What was in it?" I asked, striving to control myself. "You tell me you do not know?" he asked. Then indeed I lost control of myself. I stood up. "Mr. Chiffinch," I said, "I see that you do not believe a word that I say. It will be best if you take me straight to those who have authority to question me." He did not move. "You had best sit down again, Mr. Mallock. I do not say that I do not believe you. But I will allow that I do not know what to think. You are a very shrewd man, sir; and it truly is beyond my understanding that you should have forgotten so completely this most vital matter. I wish to be your friend; but I confess I do not understand. Oh! sit down, man!" he cried suddenly. "Do not playact with me. Just answer my questions." I sat down again. I saw that he was sincere and that indeed he was puzzled; and my anger went. "Well," I said, "I suppose it may be difficult. Let me tell you the whole affair." So I told him. I related the whole of my adventure in the inn, and how I got the paper, and tried to read it, and could not: then, how I took it to Hare Street and put it where he had described: then how I very nearly had asked a Jesuit priest if he had any skill in cypher; and then how, once more, it had all slipped my mind, and that, a long time having elapsed, even when Rumbald became prominent again, even then I had not remembered it. "That is absolutely the whole tale," I said; "and I know no more than the dead what it is all about. What is it all about, Mr. Chiffinch?"