"Yes, sir I did. I changed the notes at the request of Mr. Grent."
"At the request of Mr. Grent?" repeated Darrel.
"Why?"
"Because Captain Manuel, who gave Grent the notes, wished it."
"That isn't true!" cried Torry. "Manuel was as astonished as I, that the notes had been changed."
"I don't know about that," retorted Leighbourne sullenly. "All I know is that a fortnight before his murder, Mr. Grent asked me down to Wray House and told me that he wanted my assistance in some rather delicate business. As he was my partner and my father's, I of course, professed my willingness to serve him. Do you blame me?"
"No; quite right, quite natural. But what was the business?"
"Mr. Grent explained that when in Peru he had become mixed up with some native society. This year the Government of the Republic tried to break it up and seize the funds, so the members fled to other countries with the moneys of the society. One of these members was Captain Manuel, who brought to England the sum of ten thousand pounds, which he changed into English bank-notes valued at five hundred pounds each. As he knew that Grent sympathised with the aims of the society----"
"What were the aims of the society?" interrupted Darrel.
"Some patriotic rubbish of restoring the Inca rule," said Leighbourne crossly. "But at all events, Grent sympathised with this aim, so Manuel asked him to take charge of the money, and it was kept down in Wray House. Then, according to Grent's story, Manuel came to him, and said he was afraid that the Peruvian Government might discover the numbers of the notes and render them valueless by explaining to the English Government that they were forfeited moneys. To prevent this he asked Grent to change the notes for others of a like value but different numbers. Grent, being so well known in the banking world, was unwilling to change the notes personally, so he asked me to do so. I agreed and I did so."