Then he got down and turned again to Paul. "That is all right," he said gaily. "That is a good thing done, and I shouldn't be surprised if in a critical moment it doesn't save both my life and my fortune. Now you have got your lesson by heart, haven't you? You know what to do when any of those men like Hugh Glynn or the Earl of Fotheringay, or any of those Jesuit spies, come pottering about here! You play the avaricious fool, do you see? Pretend that you know a lot, and that you could tell them a lot if it were only made worth your while, and bleed each one of them for all the cash you can, in return for the information that I have vanished, and also for permission to turn this shop upside down to find the manuscripts, which you can hint you are certain are concealed somewhere about here." "All right, I'm game," said the youth, and his eyes gleamed with malice and wickedness. "When you've made all you can out of the dolts sell those forgeries to the highest bidder. My own idea is that the Jesuits will pay you better than anybody else, but perhaps Lord Cyril Cuthbertson may play you up too closely with the aid of some Scotland Yard detectives. In that case, let him have the honour of buying the spurious deeds, do you see? It's a pity these foolish Britishers don't roll over in the mud of their own cleverness sometimes." The conversation ended, and I turned rapidly to the Spaniard. "It's no good for you to stay here, as we have arranged," I whispered to Casteno, who now gazed at me appealingly with eyes large with nervousness and apprehension. "The hunchback won't be seen at Westminster for some time to come. He intends to disappear--as you've heard, the same as myself--but he must disappear in company with one of us. Now, who is it to be? You or I?" "I must go," quickly returned the Spaniard. "Don't you remember you have to rush off this afternoon to Southampton to meet the royal mail steamer _Atrato_ and to escort in safety to London a girl named Camille Velasquon, who is bringing some valuable papers from Mexico for me and for the Order of St Bruno? I have already telegraphed to her to Plymouth to expect you. It is impossible for you to back out." "But are you any good at shadowing a man as artful and slippery and suspicious as Zouche?" I questioned sternly. "Think for a moment what it means to your own future if you fail." "I shall not fail," said Casteno decisively, starting to make a bee line for the trap-door, through which he had entered the recess. "I have tracked scores of men in my time in the old, wild days in Mexico, when to be discovered as a spy meant that you were caught up by a lasso and strung to the nearest tree, whilst sympathising neighbours took pot-shots at you out of their revolvers. Just trust to me, and go and conduct Camille Velasquon from the vessel I mentioned to St Bruno's in Hampstead--that will require all your nerve, your daring, and your resolution!"