Chapter Fifty Four.
Peter Rowle’s Bargain.
I was just in time to call Tom Girtley back as he reached the corner of the street, and he came up into my room, wondering, for the hour was getting late; but he took a chair quietly, and waited for what Mr Peter had to say.
“Well, it ain’t much,” said the latter; “but it may mean a good deal. S’pose, sir, you just cast your eye over them there?” He took a packet of papers, tied with red tape, and docketed, out of his pocket, and passed them over to Tom Girtley, who immediately opened them in a very business-like way, and proceeded rapidly to mentally summarise their contents.
This took him some little time, during which we all sat very still, Mr Peter giving me a very knowing look or two in the interval.
“These are very important documents, sir,” said Tom Girtley quietly. “I must, of course, warn you that I am only a young member of my profession, and wanting in experience; but, as far as I can judge, these are the private memoranda and certain deeds and documents of Mr Edward Grace, of—”
“My father!” I exclaimed excitedly. “How did you get these papers, Mr Rowle?”
“Bought ’em,” said the old gentleman quietly.
“You bought them?”