"And I gave it to Laud Cavendish," added Captain Shivernock; thus carrying out the programme which had been agreed upon the night before he went on his journey. Possibly, if Mr. Laud Cavendish had known that the wicked nabob had returned, he would have hastened to see him, and inform him of the change he had made in the programme. If he had done so, their stories might have agreed better. Captain Patterdale, Mr. Beardsley, and Donald were astonished at this admission. "For what did you pay it to him?" asked the good nabob. "None of your business what I paid it to him for. That's my affair," bluffed the wicked nabob. "But this bill was in the box." "But how do you know it was? I suppose you will say next that I stole the box." "I hope you will assist me in tracing out this matter," said the good nabob, as he produced the mended bill. "This is the one; I call it the white cross of Denmark." Captain Shivernock picked up the bill, and took from his pocket his own roll of fifties. "You must admit that the bill is peculiar enough to be easily identified," added Captain Patter dale. "I don't admit it," said the strange man, as he threw the four mended bills together on the desk. "Now, which is it?" The wicked nabob laughed and roared in his delight when he saw the confusion of the good nabob. "They are very like," said the good. "But three of them are mine, and haven't been out of my hands since the 'white cross of Denmark' was put upon them," added the wicked, still shaking his sides with mirth. "Still I can identify the one that was in the box. That is it;" and Captain Patterdale held up the right one. "This has been folded, while yours have simply been rolled, and have not a crease in them. Hasbrook paid me the money that was stolen." "The villain swindled it out of me," growled the wicked. "But he folded his money, however he got it," continued the good. "I can bring you a dozen bills with the white cross on them," blustered the wicked, "and all of them folded like that one." "Can you tell where you got it, captain?" "From the bank," replied he, promptly; and then more to have his hit at the missionaries than to explain the white cross, he told how the bills were torn. "That's all I have to say," he added; and he stalked out of the house, in spite of the host's request for him to remain, without giving a word or even a look to Donald. "I am astonished," said Captain Patterdale. "Can it be possible that he paid that bill to Laud?" Perhaps this was the joke of the strange man--simply to confuse and confound a "psalm-singer." "It looks as though we had lost the clew," said the deputy sheriff. "At any rate, Don John's story is confirmed." "Why should the captain give Laud so much money?" mused the nabob. "I know," said Donald. "I told you, in the first place, that I knew where Laud got the money to pay for the Juno; but it was a great secret affecting another person, and he wished me not to tell."