"Well, I meant to get some fellow to discount this, get some money for it, you know, but happening to meet Bellamy at the club, it occurred to me that he mightn't like the bill hawked about, so I asked him if he'd take it up. See?" "Quite. Whether he'd give you the money for it--the hundred and fifty pounds. I see," said Jasper. "Well?" "Well, I put it rather delicately--there was a lot of fellows about--and he didn't seem to understand me. 'What bill do you mean, old man?' he said. 'I took an oath not to fly any more paper a year ago, and I've kept it, by George!'" Jasper leant forward slightly; the keen, hard look which comes into the eyes of a hound that suddenly scents game, came into his. But this time he did not speak; as was usual with him when interested, he remained silent. "Well, I flatter myself I played a cool hand," said the captain, complacently flicking the ash from his cigarette. "I knew the bill was a--a----" "Forgery," said Jasper, coldly. The captain nodded gravely. "A forgery. But I felt for the poor young beggar, and didn't want to be hard on him; so I pretended to Bellamy that I'd made a mistake and meant somebody else, and explained that I'd been at the champagne rather freely the other night; and--you know Bellamy--he was satisfied." "Well?" said Jasper, in a low voice. "Well, then I took a cab, and drove to 22 Percival street----" He paused abruptly, and bit his lip; but Jasper, though he heard the address, and had stamped it, as it were, on his memory, showed no sign of having noticed it, and examined his nails curiously. "I drove to the young fellow's rooms, and he confessed to it. Poor young beggar! I pitied him from the bottom of my heart--I did indeed. Wrong, I know. Justice, and example, and all that, you'll say; but if you'd seen him, with his head buried in his hands, and his whole frame shaking like a leaf, why, you'd have pitied him yourself." Jasper put up his hand to his mouth to hide a sneer. "Very likely," he said--"most likely. I have a particularly soft heart for--forgers." The captain started slightly. It was a horrible word! "I don't believe the young beggar meant it, not in cold blood, you know; but he was so knocked of a heap by my dropping down upon him, and so afraid of looking like a welsher that the idea of the bill struck him, and he did it. He swears that Bellamy and he are such chums, that Bellamy wouldn't have minded." "Ah," said Jasper, with a smile, "the judge and jury will look at that in a different light." "The judge and jury! What do you mean?" demanded the captain. "You don't think I'm going to--what's-its-name--prosecute?" "Then what are you here for?" Jasper was going to say, but politely corrected it to "Then what can I do for you?" "Well, here's the strange part of the story! I went home to find the bill and tear it up----" Jasper smiled again, and again hid the delicate sneer.