"Ah--you may say fie! fie! if you like," quoth Steggars, earnestly; "but the thing is, not how they were come by, but what can be done with them, now they're got. For example, there's a certain member of parliament in Yorkshire, that, high as he may hold his head, has no more right to the estates that yield him a good ten thousand a-year than I have, but keeps some folk out of their own, that could pay some other folk a round sum to be put in the way of getting their own;" and that--intimated the suffering captive--was only _one_ of the good things he knew of. Here old Quirk rubbed his chin, hemmed, fidgeted about in his seat, took off his glasses, wiped them, replaced them; and presently went through that ceremony again. He then said that he had had the honor of being concerned for a great number of gentlemen in Mr. Steggars' "present embarrassed circumstances," but who had always been able to command at least a five-pound note, at starting, to run a heat for liberty. "Come, come, old gentleman," quoth Steggars, earnestly, "I don't want to go over the water before my time, if I can help it, I assure you; and I see you know the value of what I've got! Such a gentleman as you can turn every bit of paper I have in my box into a fifty-pound note." "All this is moonshine, my young friend," said old Quirk, in an irresolute tone and manner. "Ah! is it, though? To be able to tell the owner of a fat ten thousand a-year, that you can spring a mine under his feet at any moment--eh?--and no one ever know how you came by your knowledge. And if they wouldn't do what was handsome, couldn't you _get the right heir_--and wouldn't _that_--Lord! it would make the fortunes of half-a-dozen of the first houses in the profession!" Old Quirk got a little excited. "But mind, sir--you see"--said Steggars, "if I get off, I'm not to be cut out of the thing altogether--eh? I shall look to be taken into your employ, and dealt handsomely by"----