He was better, though, in a few minutes, and when I left him he clung to my hand, his last words being: "I will make all right, I will give you no trouble now." Tom Girtley laughed at me when I rejoined him and told him where I had been. "This is a pretty way of doing business!" he exclaimed. "You play fast and loose with your solicitor, and end by coming down and compromising the case with the defendant. Really, Mr Grace, this is most reprehensible, and I shall wash my hands of the whole affair." "Glad of it," said I, laughing. "A solicitor should always have clean hands." We chatted on merrily as we walked, for we had started to go as far as my old home, where, as I pointed out to him the scene of many a happy hour, a feeling of sadness more painful than I had experienced for years seemed to oppress me, and it was not until I had once more left the old home far behind that I was able to shake it off. When we returned to the hotel it was to find Mr Blakeford waiting for us, and to the utter surprise of both, we were soon put in possession of all that was necessary to give me that which was my own by right, but which he saw plainly enough that his child would share. "I don't like to turn prophet, Tony," said my companion, "but I should say that our friend Blakeford is putting his affairs in order on account of a full belief that a summons is about to issue that he is soon to meet. Well, I congratulate you," he said, "and I don't wonder now why it was that I did not find we were rivals." This was after we had spent one evening at Blakeford's; and in the morning, after a tender leave-taking, we were on our way back to London. My presence was needed, for the test of the machine would take place next day, and I found Hallett had been taken so ill that all prospect of his attending the public trial had been swept away. "It does not matter," he said to me quietly, when I was sitting with him, propped up in an easy-chair, beside Mrs Hallett. "It is better as it is, Antony, my dear boy. I shall not be there for the miserable scamps to pelt when the poor old idol breaks down again." "Breaks down!" I cried exultingly; "I was there last night till after twelve, and there will be no tampering this time, for a policeman is on the watch, and Mr Jabez and Mr Peter were going to take turn and turn in the room all night, the one with a box full of snuff, and the other with a couple of ounces of tobacco, and the longest clay pipe I could get." "`There's many a slip 'twixt cup and lip,'" he said, looking at me with a piteous smile upon his wasted face. "Antony, lad, inventors do not often reap much from the crops they sow, but there is the unselfish pleasure of helping others. If I do not prosper from my work others may. God bless you, lad! I believe I have a trusty friend in you, and one who will be true to my poor mother here and Linny."