"I am not surprised at your refusing to believe me," he said, calmly. "I don't look like a criminal, perhaps--least of all like a forger, or a murderer. Yet I am both. It all occurred years ago. Ah! it's a nightmare--a horrible dream, which has lived with me all my life since." He paused, then continued. "It happened in the house I had then just bought--my house in Belgrave Street. The governor had left me money, but I was ambitious-- avaricious, if you like. I wanted more money--much more. And I wanted it at once. I could not brook delay. I had travelled a good deal, even then, and I was still a bachelor. During my wanderings, I had become acquainted with all sorts and conditions of people. In Mexico I had met Henry Whichelo, and on our way home to England on the same ship, we became very intimate. Another man on board, with whom I had also grown intimate, was Dan Paulton--or Dago, as his friends called him. A man of energy and dash, and of big ideas, he somehow fascinated and appealed to me. Well--he--he discovered my ambition to grow rich quickly and without trouble. He was a plausible and most convincing talker--he is that still, though less than he was--and by degrees he broke it to me that he was interested in, and in some way associated with, a group of `continental financiers,' as he called them. Later, I discovered, when too late, that really they were bank-note forgers! He talked to me in such a way that gradually, against my will, and quite against my better nature, I became interested in the operations of these men. And, as he had thus ensnared me by his insidious talk, so, in the same way, he had ensnared our companion, Whichelo." And he paused, because of his difficulty in breathing. "It was about this time that I married. Within a year after my marriage, I found that blackguard Paulton was doing his best to steal Gwen from me," he went on, in a half-whisper. "He was talking her right round, I found, as he seemed able to talk anybody round. By this time, I had discovered him to be a far greater scoundrel than I had ever before suspected. Then came a revulsion in my feelings. I had come suddenly to hate him. My mind became set upon revenge. Already I had become actively interested in Paulton's continental schemes for making money, the forgery of French bank-notes, and by manufacturing coin. My fortune was already more than doubled. Alas! It was too late to draw back. Some of the base coin had actually been moulded and finished in my house in Belgrave Street. The rest was made abroad. The coins, perfectly made by an ingenious process, were nearly all French louis and ten-franc pieces, these being the coins most easy to circulate at the time. Paulton's plan for issuing the coin we made, was ingenious and most successful. It seemed impossible--of--of--discovery. And--" Once again he was compelled to pause, drawing a long and difficult breath. Then he continued--