“They were used as spies by a band of coiners, and so well could these two children of the chief coiner counterfeit either male or female sex, that for years they carried on their traffic in base coin undetected; for, indeed, my father and many other merchants had often and often given notes for gold, and it was not until the gold was tried at the mint that any deception was discovered; but then it was too late to trace it back through the various merchants’ offices to the proper persons.
“The reason Tom and her brother were sent to different schools was, that, they being so highly educated, they might afterwards prove all the more expert, and less likely to be detected.”
“But what revenge had you?” asked Captain Jack.
“I revealed what I had discovered to the chief of the coiners, and my silence was bought.”
“And afterwards?”
“Because I did not receive another consideration from them, I informed.”
“I know you did. But you were too late; the birds had flown.”
“How know you that?” asked Phillip.
“Because I was one of the coiners myself then.”
“You?”