Tony showed more than a trace of embarrassment. He was, though a personable man, somewhat youthful in appearance and manner, and a little color crept into his forehead. Appleby, who remembered his promise, saw his discomposure, and decided that as the bank would be open at ten on the morrow Tony wanted the money urgently that night. “Is there any reason why I should?” said the latter. Appleby nodded. “I think there is,” he said. “We have been friends a long while, and it seems to me quite reasonable that I should want to help you. You are in a hole, Tony.” Palliser had not meant to make a confession, but he was afraid and weak, and Appleby was strong. “I am. It’s a devilishly deep one, and I can’t get out,” he said. “Well, I’ll tell you. I’m in that condemned Davidson the keeper’s hands, and he is squeezing the life out of me. You will remember his daughter Lucy, who lived at the lodge?” “Blackmail!” said Appleby dryly. “Go on.” Tony took out and played with a cigar. “She was pretty, and you know I was always a trifle soft. Now and then I stopped as I passed, and talked to her. I don’t think she disliked it. Well, I don’t remember exactly how it came about, but I made her a trifling wager, and, of course, I lost it; while some fiend put it into my head to send her a little brooch, with a note, instead of the forfeit agreed on—I think it was a box of chocolate. I was away for a week or two, and when I came back she told me she didn’t think she ought to take anything of that kind from me. There was nobody about the lodge—at least so I fancied—and I insisted upon putting the condemned thing on. I think I told you she was pretty.” “I have seen it for myself,” said Appleby, whose face was a picture of disgust. “Go on!” “Well,” said Tony, “why the devil are you looking like that at me? I wasn’t engaged to Violet then, and I kissed her—and went away immediately. It is necessary that you should know this, you see.” Perhaps it was relief, for his comrade was more truthful than weak men usually are, but Appleby lapsed into a great burst of laughter. Tony, however, looked at him lugubriously. “It really isn’t in the least amusing—to me,” he said. “It’s an especially risky business kissing that kind of young woman, especially when anybody sees you. Still, I’d seen something in the girl’s face that warned me, and on my word of honor the affair ended there; but in a week or two, when I didn’t answer the note she sent, Davidson came and worried me. Talked about his feelings and a motherless girl’s reputation, showed me the note I’d written her, and said a good deal about witnesses. Well—you know I’m careless—I gave him five pounds, a note, and then saw he had one of his men hanging about. ‘Go down to the “Black Bull,” and get this fiver Mr. Palliser has given me changed,’ he said.” “Clever!” said Appleby. “I begin to understand the thing.”