"I never said that!" cried he. "God knows I was guilty enough after the event; and God knows, also, that I did what I could to make it up to you and yours in every other way later on. You may smile in my face--I deserve it--but what would you have gained if I had blown the gaff? Nothing at all; whereas I should have been bowled out in getting your father abroad with the very money I'd raised to save the ship; and that alone would have been the very devil for me. No Crofter Fisheries! Very likely Wormwood Scrubs instead! I couldn't face it; so I held my tongue, and I've been paying for it to this ruffian ever since." "Paying for it!" echoed Scrafton. "Paying _me_ to hold _my_ tongue; that's what he means!" "It is true enough," said Lowndes quietly, in answer to a look from Harry. "He admits it!" cried Scrafton, snuffing horribly in his exultation; "he might just as well admit the whole thing. Who but a guilty man pays another to hold his tongue?" "I have confessed the full extent of my guilt," said Lowndes, in the same quiet voice. "Then why were you such a blockhead as to put yourself at my mercy to-night?" roared the other, his bloodshot eyes breaking into a sudden blaze of fury. Lowndes stood a little without replying; and Harry Ringrose, still wavering between the two men, and as yet distrusting and condemning them equally in his heart, saw all at once a twinkle in the spectacled eyes which weighed more with him than words. A twitch of the sharp nose completed a characteristic look which Harry could neither forget nor misunderstand; it was not that of the losing side; and now, for the first time, the lad could believe it was a real detective, and not a third accomplice, who was waiting in the street below. "Do you think I am the man to put myself at your mercy?" asked Lowndes at length, and with increased serenity. "You've done so, you blockhead! You've put the rope round your own neck!" "On the contrary, my good Scrafton, I've simply waited until I was certain of slipping it round yours. You would see that for yourself if you hadn't drunk your brain to a pulp. You would have seen it by the way I sent you to the devil this evening. However, I think you're beginning to see it now!" "I see nothing," snarled Scrafton; "and you can prove nothing! But if I can't hang you, I can tell enough to make you glad to go out and hang yourself. It doesn't much matter what happens to me. I'm old and poor, and about done for in any case, or I might think more of my own skin. But you're on the top of the wave--and I'll have you back in the trough! You're living on the fat of the land--you shall see how you like skilly! Never mind who did the trick; who took the money when it was done?" Harry turned once more to Lowndes, and, despite his late convictions, the question was reflected in his face. "The notes went overboard with your father," said Lowndes. "The gold we found in his bag in the cabin." "And what did you do with the gold?"