"By telling the truth I should have brought about my own ruin. Mr. Avison would never have forgiven me had I confessed to opening John Brancker's drawer with a false key. He would have discharged me on the spot." "I can understand the reasons for your reticence so far as that part of the case is concerned, but why did you swear that you had not seen Mr. Brancker leave the Bank?" "Because I was a moral coward. When the coroner put the question to me I was flurried in my mind, and hardly knew what answer I was giving. My chief thought at the time was to divert suspicion from myself; in saying what I did I had not the slightest notion that it would tell in any way against Mr. Brancker, but having once sworn that such was the truth, I was afraid to go back from it at the trial." Then, after a little space of silence, he added: "I want you to believe this, Mr. Clement: if Mr. Brancker had been brought in guilty, I should have told all I knew, whatever might have been the cost to myself. And that is the solemn truth." Clem was at a loss what reply to make to the strange statement of which he had been made the recipient. Both reproach and vituperation, even had he been willing to indulge in either, were out of the question with a man in his patient's condition. At length he said: "I presume you have no objection to my telling Mr. Brancker what you have just told me, leaving him to act in the matter in whatever way may seem most advisable to him?" "That is exactly what I am desirous you should do; and do not forget, please, to tell him how sincerely I regret the injury I have done him. That he will accord me his forgiveness is more than I dare hope." Clement rose and took up his hat. "I have not quite done yet," said the sick man. "What I am now about to tell you may seem of little or no consequence to you--in other words, you may take a different view of it from the one taken by me--but, in any case, it is only right that you should be told." Clement sat down again, and waited in silence till Ephraim was ready to continue. "You may remember," he resumed, "that at the Bank there is a spiral staircase which gives access to a couple of rooms under the roof, used chiefly as a storage place for old ledgers and documents of various kinds connected with the business?" Clement nodded.