He fingered them.

They seemed to grow to his finger.

He lusted after them.

He said to himself, “The matter has gone too far to stop; I must go on borrowing this money of the Dodds, and make it the basis of a large fortune: it will be best for all parties in the end.”

He put It into his pocket-book; that pocket-book into his breast-pocket; and passed by his private door into the house, and to his dressing-room.

Ten minutes later he left the house with a little black bag in his band.

[ [!-- H2 anchor --] ]

CHAPTER XX

“WHAT will ye give me, and I'll tell ye?” said Maxley to Alfred Hardie.

“Five pounds.”