"Has the parson come?" asked Stilling, raising his head suddenly.
"No," replied the turnkey: "not yet, Gaunt; but I want to have a little talk with you; and I have brought the light irons, for these are too heavy."
"I care not for them," answered Stilling: "what matters it to me whether they are fight or heavy? Do you suppose I am going to try to escape?"
"No, no, Master Stilling," said the turnkey, "we must have no more escapes."
"Ay," said Gaunt Stilling; "yet I could frighten you into opening that door and letting me out in five minutes."
The turnkey shook his head.
"What! not if I could prove you received eighty pounds out of the three hundred and fifty?"
"You can't prove that," said the turnkey, with a grin.
"You are mistaken," replied Gaunt Stilling. "Every piece was marked in the presence of a witness, and five of them which you spent are easily to be found. There is not one of you--of all the five who shared the money--that is not just as much in my power as I am in yours. If it depended upon my word, that might be nothing; but remember, there are several others in the business, who are now free enough to bear testimony."
"But you are too honorable a man to 'peach," said the turnkey, a good deal frightened.