'Nothing can save me,' George repeated. 'Is that all you came to say, Sir Samuel?' 'That is all. A clean breast is all we ask.' 'Then, Sir Samuel'--George rose and took a bundle of papers from the table--'let us find my Partner. You shall hear what I have to say.' 'Ah! that's right--that's sensible. I knew that you would be open to reason. Come. He is sure to be alone at this early hour. Come at once.' They went out together. The clerks noted their faces full of 'business,' as we poetically put it--matters of buying and selling being notoriously of the highest importance conceivable. Evidently something very serious indeed had passed. But the chief personage still held up his head. 'Game, sir, game to the last. But there will be a bolt.' Mr. Dering was in his usual place, before the letters, which were still unopened. He looked ill, worn, and worried. 'Brother,' said Sir Samuel, 'I bring you a young gentleman who has a communication to make of great importance.' 'Is it about this case? Have you--at last found out something?' The tone, the words, suggested extreme irritability. 'I fear not. You know, I believe, all that we have found out. But now,' said Sir Samuel, rubbing his hands--'now comes the long-expected----' George interrupted--'What I have to say will not take long. I hear from Sir Samuel that he and Checkley between them have got up a case which involves me in these forgeries.' 'Quite right,' said Sir Samuel. 'Involves you inextricably.' 'And that things have gone so far that I am about to be arrested, tried, and convicted. Which he rightly thinks will be a great scandal. So it will--so it certainly will. He therefore proposes that I should make a clean breast of the whole business, and give back the stolen bonds. I am sorry that I cannot do this, for a very simple reason--namely, that there is nothing to confess. But there is one thing that I must do. You placed the case in my hands----' 'I did. I asked you to find out. I have brought no charge against you. Have you found out?' Mr. Dering spoke like a schoolmaster in one of his least amiable moods. 'It is a very improper thing for a person accused of a crime to be engaged in detecting it. So I resign the case--there are the papers. You had better go to some solicitor accustomed to this kind of work.' 'Stuff and rubbish!' cried Mr. Dering. 'Sir, you have deceived me.' Sir Samuel's face was gradually resuming its normal length. 'You promised to confess, and you have not. You as good as confessed just now.--This man is clearly, unmistakably guilty,' he added, turning to his brother. 'I have not asked you, my Partner,' Mr. Dering added, more softly, 'to give up the case. I have heard what is said. I have observed that the so-called case is built up entirely on conjecture.' 'No--no,' said Sir Samuel. 'It is a sound structure, complete in every part.' 'And there is nothing as yet to connect any man with the thing--not even the man Edmund Gray.'