"I only share with bolder robbers their richer plunder," retorted the man. "I will not bear this, Martin. Leave my presence." "I will relieve you certainly," said the visitor, rising, "when you have done for me what I wish. I arrived here, to-day, penniless; and have called for a trifling loan to help me on my way North." "Loan! what mockery! I will yield no further to your outrageous demands. I was a fool ever to have feared the little power you possess. Go, sir! I do not fear you." "I want your check for two hundred dollars--no more," said Martin, in a modified tone--"I will not be hard on you. Necessity drives me to this resort; but I hope never to trouble you again." "Not a dollar," replied Jasper, firmly. "And now, my friend, seek some other mode of sustaining yourself in vice and idleness. You have received from me your last contribution. In settling the estate of Reuben Elder to the entire satisfaction of all parties, I have disarmed you. You have no further power to hurt." "You may find yourself mistaken in regard to my power," replied Martin as he made a movement toward the door, and threw back upon the merchant a side-glance of the keenest malignity. "Many a foot has been stung by the reptile it spurned." The word "stay" came not to Jasper's lips. He was fully in earnest. Martin paused, with his hand on the door, and said-- "One hundred dollars will do." "Not a copper, if it were to save you from the nether regions!" cried Jasper, his anger and indignation o'erleaping the boundaries of self-control. He was alone in the next moment. As his excitement cooled down, he felt by no means indifferent to the consequences which might follow this rupture with Martin. More than one thought presented itself, which, if it could have been weighed calmly a few minutes before, would have caused a slightly modified treatment of his unwelcome visitor. But having taken his position, Jasper determined to adhere to it, and brave all consequences. While Claire was yet seated at the breakfast-table on the next morning, word was brought that a gentleman was in the parlour and wished to see him. On entering the parlour, he found there a man of exceedingly ill appearance, both as to countenance and apparel. "My name is Martin," said this person--"though you do not, I presume, know me." Claire answered that he was to him an entire stranger. "I have," said the man, speaking in a low, confidential tone of voice, "became cognisant of certain facts, which it much concerns you, or at least your adopted daughter, Fanny Elder, to know." For a few moments, Claire was overcome with surprise. "Concerns Fanny Elder to know! What do you mean, sir?" "Precisely what I say. There has been a great fraud committed; and I know all the ins and the outs of it!" "By whom?" asked Claire. "Ah!" replied the visitor, "that we will come to after a while." "Upon whom, then?" "Upon the estate of Ruben Elder, the father of your adopted daughter."