"All right, dear boy. You shall show me, then. Good-night, Mrs Reed. The cabman is waiting; and as soon as I've seen him in bed, I'll slip off." "Thank you," said Janet coldly, as she gazed searchingly at the smooth, well-dressed, polished man, and felt a strong repellent force at work. Then the door closed, and she sank in a chair, helpless, hopeless, listening to the steps upon the stairs, and thinking of her husband's words. "And I let myself be led to believe that this man loved me," she thought, in her bitterness,--"this man, who could degrade me as he has to-night before his companion." But her thoughts changed from her own misery to Jessop's threats against his brother. "What does he mean?" she asked herself. "Ruin him?" She sat gazing before her wildly, her heart throbbing at the thought of the man she had told herself she loved coming to harm; but directly after Jessop's other utterances flooded her mind, and swept the thought of trouble befalling Clive right away. For was this true? So soon after his fathers death! Was there some one whom he had met, some one beautiful--fair to see? "What is it to me?" she said scornfully. "He is not worthy of a second thought. Better Jessop's wife, even if he sinks lower still." She listened and heard steps, then the front door closed, and lastly the sound of wheels. Then lying back in the chair, she prepared to rest there for the night, while Jessop sat up in bed, waiting for her to come, thoroughly sobered now. For as soon as Wrigley had helped him up to and across the chamber, Jessop had felt two nervous hands seize him by the throat, and he was flung quickly and silently back on the bed. "Look here, you miserable, brainless idiot!" whispered Wrigley savagely, as he held him down. "Here, what are you doing?" "Silence, fool! or I'll choke the miserable life out of you. Now are you sober enough to understand? Mind this; if by any words of yours-- any of your cursed blabbings, this business comes to grief, I warn you to run for your life." "What?" "For there are those in it now who would not scruple much about making you pay." "Pay?" faltered Jessop, as he gazed in the fierce face so close to his. "Yes, my dear friend, and so that the world would be none the wiser when you were dead." CHAPTER TWENTY. DINAH SEEKS SAFETY. Clive Reed crossed the spoil bank one evening after a busy day at the mine, leaving a black cloud of smoke still rising where the furnaces were hard at work, turning the grey stone ore into light silvery metal, which was run off into the moulds ready for stamping there as ordinary soft lead; then, after several purifyings, as hard solid ingots of silver.