‘No, my friend,’ he remarked composedly, ‘nothing can upset it now. The last of my silver is disposed of--safely negotiated. Go into my sheds now, and you will discover--nothing. My machinery is destroyed; all evidence is annihilated. For twenty years I have been crossing an abyss by means of a tight-rope; at any moment I might have been precipitated into the gulf. But at last I am on firm ground once more. It is the Other, now, who will shortly be plunged into the abyss.’ ‘The Other!’ Richard repeated, struck by the strange and mordant accent with which Raphael Craig had pronounced that word. ‘The Other,’ said the old man. ‘His hour comes.’ ‘And who is he?’ demanded Richard. ‘That,’ Raphael Craig said, ‘you will never know until my deed is accomplished. The train is laid, the fuse is ignited. I have only to wait.’ ‘Then you will tell me nothing more?’ said Richard. ‘Have I not interested you so far?’ said the old man. ‘Undoubtedly, but my curiosity is still not quite sated.’ ‘It occurs to me that your curiosity exceeds mine. By what right, young man, do you put all these questions? I have never sought to cross-examine you, as I might have done.’ ‘Under the circumstances,’ said Richard, ‘I think you have a perfect right to know, and certainly I have no objection to telling you. I came on behalf of the directors of the bank.’ ‘Which means Mr. Simon Lock,’ said Raphael Craig. ‘Which means Mr. Simon Lock,’ Richard cheerfully admitted. ‘Ah!’ ‘Then you decline to admit me further into your confidence?’ Richard doggedly persisted. ‘Redgrave,’ said the old man, standing up, my scheme is my own. It is the most precious thing I have--the one thing that has kept me alive, given me vitality, vivacity, strength, hope. During all these years I have shared it with none. Shall I share it now? Shall I share it with a man young enough to be my son, a man who forced himself into my house, wormed himself into the secrets of my private life? I shall not. It is too sacred a thing. You do not know what my scheme means to me; you cannot guess all that is involved in it. I can conceive that you might even laugh at my scheme--you who do not yet know what life is and what life means.’ Raphael Craig resumed with dignity his seat on the sofa. Richard was impressed by this exhibition of profound feeling on the part of the old man. He was inclined to admit, privately, that perhaps the old man was right--perhaps he did not know what life was and what life meant; perhaps there were things in life deeper, more terrible, than he had ever suspected.