“I beg your pardon, Mr. Pilbrow. I was betrayed into some unwarrantable heat. I confess we look at this matter from different points of view; but that is not to say that mine is necessarily the right one. Indeed, you have given me a lesson in Christianity, to which I seem to make, I admit, a scurvy return.” The little bookseller bowed, grimly still, but without answer. “If then,” said the clergyman, biting under the irony that would make itself felt in his words, “you find this clew--find this marvellous deposit of wealth--there are laws of treasure-trove: you cannot think for a moment that I will, that I can, counsel secrecy--allow Richard to share in the profits of a felony----” “Felony, sir!” cried Joshua. “Is not that what a hoodwinking of the law would amount too? You agree with me, Mr. Paxton?” “Yes, yes--O yes, of course!” assented Uncle Jenico, faintly. “Harkee, Mr. Parson!” cried Joshua, in a heat. “I throw the word in your teeth. I am no suborner, sir, no, nor glorifier of my own ignorance neither. Be sure I don’t know the law better than you, before you tax me in advance with cheating it.” “Well, well,” said Mr. Sant, smiling. “I don’t know the law on the subject, I confess.” “Then take this, sir, for your rebuke,” said the other, sourly; “and be less apt--for a clergyman--to damn without book. The law of England--I _do_ know it, and have reason to--takes its definition of treasure-trove from the jurist Paulus, who lays down that ‘_vetus depositio pecuniae cujus dominus ignoratur_,’ that is to say, ancient concealed treasure of which the lord of the soil is ignorant, becomes, being discovered, the property of the Crown, if presumptively deposited by some one who at the time intended to reclaim it.” “Exactly,” put in Mr. Sant. “And yet, in the face of----” “Will you permit me?” interrupted the bookseller, with a manner of most frosty sarcasm. “For all your cloth, sir, I would not have you on a jury, lest you stopped the case before hearing the other side.” The rector muttered an apology. He really did look abashed. “I say,” repeated Joshua, “that the Crown, to prove its title to treasure-trove, must prove the depositor’s intention to reclaim first. Where that is wanting, or _where an intention to abandon can be shown_--as when the goods were thrown away in a panic, or for other reason, to be rid of them--the treasure remains wholly and solely in the possession of the finder.” “Very well,” said Mr. Sant, plucking up heart. “And what benefit is that alternative to you?” “What benefit! To me!” cried Joshua. “Have you heard my story, sir? Did you listen to it? Did you hear me quote the man Vining’s confession that he had abandoned the price of his iniquity, and cast it from him?” Mr. Sant reflected. He was getting interested, I was sure, after all. “’Tis a subtle legal point, I think,” said he. “I foresee, anyhow, fine complications; even if you had evidence--which you have not--of this intention to abandon.”