"No, no," murmured the clerk. "----When it was but the recklessness of a drowning man. Why, Hill--if I could get in the money at present due to me, money that I think will come in, perhaps shortly, though it is locked up now, we should weather the storm." "I trust it will be weathered, sir, somehow. At the worst, it will not be a bad failure; there'll be twenty shillings in the pound if they will but wait. Perhaps, if you called a private meeting and pointed things out, and showed them that it is only time you want, they'd consent to let you have it. Matters would go on then, and there'd be no exposure." "It is the want of time that will crush me," said Peter Castlemaine. "But if they will allow you time, sir?" "All will not," was the significant answer, and Mr. Peter Castlemaine lowered his voice as he spoke it, and looked full at his clerk. "You know those Armannon bonds?" Whether it was the tone, the look, or the question, certain it was that in that instant an awful dread, an instinct of evil, seized upon the old man. His face turned white. "I had to use those bonds, Hill," whispered his master. "To mortgage them, you understand. But, as I am a living man, I believed when I did it that in less than a week they would be redeemed and replaced." "Mortgaged the Armannon bonds!" ejaculated Thomas Hill, utterly unable to take in the fact, and looking the picture of horror. "And they are not yet redeemed." The clerk wrung his hands. "My master! my friend and master! How could you? Surely it was done in a moment of madness!" "Of weakness, of wickedness, if you will, Thomas, but not madness. I was as sane as I am now. You remember the large payment we had to make last August? It had to be made, you know, or things would have come to a crisis then. I used the bonds to raise the money." "But I--I cannot comprehend," returned the clerk slowly, after casting his recollection back. "I thought you borrowed that money from Mr. Castlemaine." "No. Mr. Castlemaine would not lend it me. I don't know whether he smelt a rat and got afraid for the rest I hold of his. What he said was, that he had not so large a sum at his disposal. Or, it may be," added the banker in a dreamy kind of tone, "that James thought I was only going into some fresh speculation, and considers I am rich enough already. How little he knows!" "Oh, but these deeds must be redeemed!" cried the old clerk, rising from his seat in excitement. "At all sacrifice they must be got back, sir. If you have to sell up all, houses, land, and everything, they must be returned to their safe resting-place. You must not longer run this dreadful risk, sir: the fear of it would bring me down in suspense and sorrow to my grave."