in his mind from the seafaring man. Tregarthen
became greatly agitated during this recital, and
at length exclaimed:

"Clissold was the man who ruined me! I have
suspected it for many a long year, and now I
know it."

"And how," said the captain, drawing his
chair still closer to Tregarthen, and clapping
his hand upon his shoulder, "how may you
know it?"

"When we were fellow-clerks," replied
Tregarthen, "in that London House, it was one of
my duties to enter daily in a certain book, an
account of the sums received that day by the
firm, and afterwards paid into the banker's. One
memorable day—a Wednesday, the black day of
my life—among the sums I so entered, was one
of five hundred pounds."

"I begin to make it out," said the captain.
Yes?"

"It was one of Clissold's duties to copy from
this entry, a memorandum of the sums which
the clerk employed to go to the banker's paid
in there. It was my duty to hand the money
to Clissold; it was Clissold's to hand it to the
clerk, with that memorandum of his writing.
On that Wednesday, I entered a sum of five
hundred pounds received. I handed that sum,
as I handed the other sums in the day's entry, to
Clissold. I was absolutely certain of it at the
time; I have been absolutely certain of it ever
since. A sum of five hundred pounds was afterwards
found by the House to have been that day
wanting from the bag, from Clissold's
memorandum, and from the entries in my book. Clissold,
being questioned, stood upon his perfect clearness
in the matter, and emphatically declared that
he asked no better than to be tested by
'Tregarthen's book.' My book was examined, and
the entry of five hundred pounds was not there."

"How not there," said the captain, "when
you made it yourself?"

Tregarthen continued:

"I was then questioned. Had I made the
entry? Certainly I had. The House produced
my book, and it was not there. I could not
deny my book; I could not deny my writing. I
knew there must be forgery by some one; but
the writing was wonderfully like mine, and I
could impeach no one if the House could not.
I was required to pay the money back. I did
so, and I left the House, almost broken-hearted,
rather than remain there—even if I could have
done so—with a dark shadow of suspicion always
on me. I returned to my native place, Lanrean,
and remained there, clerk to a mine, until I was
appointed to my little post here."

"I well remember," said the captain, " that
I told you that if you had had no experience of
ill-judgments on deceiving appearances, you were
a lucky man. You were hurt at that, and I see
why. I'm sorry."

"Thus it is," said Tregarthen. " Of my own
innocence, I have of course been sure; it has
been at once my comfort, and my trial. Of
Clissold I have always had suspicions almost
amounting to certainty, but they have never
been confirmed until now. For my daughter's
sake and for my own, I have carried this subject
in my own heart, as the only secret of my life, and
have long believed that it would die with me."

"Wa'al, my good sir," said the captain,
cordially, "the present question is, and will be long,
I hope, concerning living, and not dying. Now,
here are our two honest friends, the loving
Raybrock and the slow. Here they stand, agreed on
one point, on which I'd back 'em round the
world, and right across it from north to south,
and then again from east to west, and through
it, from your deepest Cornish mine to China.
It is, that they will never use this same so-
often-mentioned sum of money, and that
restitution of it must be made to you. These two,
the loving member and the slow, for the sake of
the right and of their father's memory, will have
it ready for you to-morrow. Take it, and ease
their minds and mine, and end a most
unfort'nate transaction."

Tregarthen took the captain by the hand, and
gave his hand to each of the young men, but
positively and finally answered, No. He said,
they trusted to his word, and he was glad of it,
and at rest in his mind—but there was no
proof, and the money must remain as it was.
All were very earnest over this; and earnestness
in men, when they are right and true, is so
impressive, that Mr. Pettifer deserted his cookery
and looked on quite moved.

"And so," said the captain, "so we come—as
that lawyer-crittur over yonder where we were
this morning, might—to mere proof; do we?
We must have it; must we? How? From this
Clissold's wanderings, and from what you say, it
ain't hard to make out that there was a neat
forgery of your writing committed by the too smart
Rowdy that was grease and ashes when I made
his acquaintance, and a substitution of a forged
leaf in your book for a real and true leaf torn
out. Now, was that real and true leaf then
and there destroyed? No—for says he, in his
drunken way, he slipped it into a crack in his
own desk, because you came into the office
before there was time to burn it—and could
never get back to it arterwards. Wait a bit.
Where is that desk now? Do you consider it
likely to be in America-square, London City?"

Tregarthen shook his head.

"The House has not, for years, transacted
business in that place. I have heard of it and
read of it, as removed, enlarged, every way
altered. Things alter so fast in these times."

"You think so," returned the captain, with
compassion; "but you should come over and
see me, afore you talk about that. Wa'al, now.
This desk, this paper this paper, this desk,"
said the captain, ruminating and walking about,
and looking, in his uneasy abstraction, into Mr.
Pettifer's hat on a table, among other things.
"This desk, this paper—this paper, this desk,"
the captain continued, musing and roaming
about the room, "I'd give——"

However, he gave nothing, but took up his
steward's hat instead, and stood looking into it,
as if he had just come into Church. After that