"It is not in this room, then?"

"No."

" Are you sure?"

" Positive."

" What, not in that safe of yours, there?"

" Certainly not," said Hardie, stoutly.

" Open the safe: the keys are in it."

" Open the safe? What for?"

" To show me It is not in the right hand
partition of that safe; there: there."  And David
pointed at the very place where it was.

The dignified Mr. Hardie felt ready to
sink with shame: a kind of shudder passed
through him, and he was about to comply,
heart-sick: but then wounded pride, and the
rage of disappointment, stung him, and he
turned in defiance: " You are impertinent, sir:
and I shall not reward your curiosity and
your insolence by showing you the contents of
my safes."

"My money! my money!" cried David,
fiercely : " no more words, for I shan't listen to
them: I know you now for what you are; a
thief. I saw you put It into that safe: a liar
is always a thief. You want to steal my children's
money : I'll have your life first. My money! ye
pirate! or I'll strangle you." And he advanced
upon him purple with rage, and shot out his
long threatening arm, and brown fingers working
in the air. " D'ye know what I did to a
French land shark that tried to rob me of It?
I throttled him with these fingers till his eyes
and his tongue started out of him; he came
for my children's money, and I killed him so—
so—so—as I'll kill you, you thief! you liar! you
scoundrel!"

His face black and convulsed with rage, and
his outstretched fingers working convulsively,
and hungering for a rogue's throat, made the
resolute Hardie quake; he whipped out of
the furious man's way, and got to the safe
pale and trembling. " Hush! no violence!" he
gasped: " I'll give you your money this moment,
your ruffian."

While he unlocked the safe with trembling
hands, Dodd stood like a man petrified; his arm
and fingers stretched out and threatening; and
Skinner saw him pull at his necktie furiously,
like one choking.

Hardie got the notes and bills all in a hurry,
and held them out to Dodd.

In which act, to his consternation, and
surprise, and indignation, he received a back-handed
blow on the eye that dazzled him for an instant;
and there was David with his arms struggling
wildly, and his fists clenched, his face purple,
and his eyes distorted so that little was seen but
the whites; the next moment his teeth gnashed
loudly together, and he fell headlong on the floor
with a concussion so momentous, that the
windows rattled, and the room shook violently; while
the dust rose in a cloud.

A loud ejaculation burst from Hardie and
Skinner.

And then there was an awful silence.

CHAPTER XXII.

WHEN David fell senseless on the floor Mr.
Hardie was somewhat confused by the
backhanded blow from his convulsed and whirling
arm. But Skinner ran to him, held up his head,
and whipped off his neckcloth.

Then Hardie turned to seize the bell and ring
for assistance; but Skinner shook his head and
said it was useless; this was no faint: old Betty
could not help him:

"It is a bad day's work, sir," said he,
trembling: " he is a dead man."

"Dead? Heaven forbid!"

"Apoplexy!" whispered Skinner.

"Run for a doctor then: lose no time: don't
let us have his blood on our hands.—Dead?"

And he repeated the word this time in a very
different tone; a tone too strange and significant
to escape Skinner's quick ear. However, he
laid David's head gently down, and rose from
his knees to obey.

What did he see now, but Mr. Hardie, with
his back turned, putting the notes and bills softly
into the safe again out of sight. He saw,
comprehended, and took his own course with equal
rapidity.

"Come, run!" cried Mr. Hardie; " I'll take
care of him; every moment is precious."

(" Wants to get rid of me!") thought Skinner.
"No, sir," said he, " be ruled by me: let us take
him to his friends: he won't live; and we shall
get all the blame if we doctor him."

Already egotism had whispered Hardie, " How
lucky if he should die!" and now a still guiltier
thought flashed through him: he did not try to
conquer it; he only trembled at himself for
entertaining it.

"At least give him air!" said he, in a quavering
voice, consenting in a crime, yet compromising
with his conscience, feebly.

He threw the window open with great zeal,
with prodigious zeal; for he wanted to deceive
himself as well as Skinner. With equal parade
he helped carry Dodd to the window; it opened on
the ground: this done, the self-deceivers put
their heads together, and soon managed matters
so that two porters, known to Skinner, were
introduced into the garden, and informed that a
gentleman had fallen down in a fit, and they were
to take him home to his friends, and not talk
about it: there might be an inquest, and that was
so disagreeable to a gentleman like Mr. Hardie.
The men agreed at once, for a sovereign apiece.
It was all done in a great hurry and agitation,
and, while Skinner accompanied the men to
see that they did not blab, Mr. Hardie went into
the garden to breathe and think. But he could
do neither.

He must have a look at It.

He stole back, opened the safe, and examined
the notes and bills.

He fingered them.

They seemed to grow to his finger.

He lusted after them.

He said to himself, "The matter has gone too