"I haven't your note by me, Mr. Leach," said Captain Patterdale; but he did not consider it necessary to state that the important document was at that moment in the tin box, wherever the said tin box might be. "I will give you a receipt for the amount you pay, and indorse it upon the note when I have it." "All right, captain." "Do you know how much the interest is? I am sure I have forgotten," added the rich man. "I ought to know. I have had to work too hard to get the money in time to forget how much it was. It is just seventy dollars," answered Leach. "You needn't pay it now, if you are short." "I'm not short now. I'm flush, for which I thank Don John," said the sail-maker, as he placed two of the fifty-dollar bills on the desk, at which the captain was writing the receipt. The uppermost of the two bills was the mended one, for Leach thought if there was any doubt in regard to this, it ought to be known at once. If the nabob would take it, the matter was settled. Captain Patterdale wrote the receipt, and did not at once glance at the money. "There's a hundred, captain," added the sail-maker. The rich man picked up the bills, and turned over the upper one. If he did not start, it was not because he was not surprised. He was utterly confounded when he saw that bill, and his thoughts flashed quickly through his mind. But he did not betray his thoughts or his emotions, quick as were the former, and intense as were the latter. He took up the mended bill, and looked it over several times. "That's the white cross of Denmark," said he, suppressing his emotions. "Isn't the bill good?" asked the sail-maker. "Good as gold for eighty-eight cents on a dollar," replied the captain. "Then it is not good," added Leach, who did not quite comprehend the nabob's mathematics. "Yes, it is." "But you say it is worth only eighty-eight cents on a dollar." "That is all any paper dollar is worth when gold is a little rising fourteen per cent. premium. The bill is perfectly good, in spite of the white cross upon it. You want thirty dollars change." The captain counted out this sum, and handed it to the debtor. "If the bill isn't good, I can give you another," replied Leach, as he took the money. "It is a good bill, and I prefer it to any other for certain reasons of my own. It has the white cross of Denmark upon it; at least, the white bars on this bill remind me of the flag of that nation." "It's like a flag--is it?" added the sail-maker, who did not understand the rich man's allusion. "Like the flag of Denmark. I made a voyage to Copenhagen once, and this bill reminds me of the merchant's flag, which has a couple of white bars across a red ground. Where did you say you got this bill, Mr. Leach?" "Don John gave it to me, not half an hour ago." "It has been torn into quarters some time, and the pieces put together again. Did Don John mend the bill himself?"