Now Mr. Barter, scared as he had been, and shaken to his centre, had begun to think again, and when he saw that Steinberg’s chance in the enemy’s hands was less than nothing, that fact formed as it were the last necessary plank for the raft of safety he desired to construct. He got up from his place, animated by this great idea, and staggering to the helpless Steinberg, fell down beside him and gripped his hands. ‘Tie him, Mr. Bommaney, tie him!’ gurgled Barter. ‘He’s been the ruin of me, curse him. I should have been an honest man if it hadn’t been for him. It’s him that led me into it, and he’s had every sixpence of the money. I’ve been his tool, his miserable tool. Tie him, Mr. Bommaney, before he comes round again. I’ll hold him for you.’ One may get good advice from the most unexpected quarter, and whencesoever good advice may come it is worth while to follow it. Phil took a dandy scarf from Steinberg’s own neck, and tied him tightly, wrist to wrist Then he helped him to his feet, and set him in a chair. ‘He came here to-night,’ Barter gurgled on, with tears of sincerest penitence, ‘to bleed me again. He’s got my I.O.U. for £82 he cheated me of last week. He’s had every penny of the money. I haven’t had so much as a single farthing of it myself. I’ll swear I haven’t.’ ‘That’s your lay, is it?’ said Steinberg, whose scattered wits were coming back to him. ‘You shall answer for this violence in the proper quarter, Bommaney.’ ‘I will answer for it in the proper quarter,’ Phil replied. ‘I will trouble you, Mr. Steinberg, to come to the proper quarter now.’ ‘You won’t forget,’ said Barter, ‘that I helped to capture him. You’ll speak a word for me, Mr. Bommaney? ‘I’ve been that villain’s victim all along. I should never have gone wrong if it hadn’t been for him, and I’ve wanted to send the money back over and over again, but he got it into his own hands and wouldn’t listen to it, and after all I never took the money, Mr. Bommaney--I only found it. It was Steinberg kept it. He said I should be a fool to let it go.’ What sentiments of contempt and rage inspired Mr. Steinberg’s bosom at this juncture must be imagined. He looked them all, but verbally expressed none of them. ‘Get up,’ said Phil, addressing him. Steinberg obeyed. ‘Take a seat in that corner.’ Steinberg obeyed again. ‘Now you--’ to Barter, ‘take a place in that corner, behind the desk.’ ‘With pleasure, Mr. Bommaney,’ said Barter, ‘with the very greatest willingness. I desire to make no resistance to the law. I helped to capture the criminal Please remember that, Mr. Bommaney. Pray remember that.’ He took hold of a heavy ruler which happened to be lying on the desk, and deeming that he and the other rascal were about to be left alone together, he showed it shakily to Steinberg, as a hint that he was not without means of protection against a man unarmed and bound.