"And when will you be free?"
"Well, I hardly know. You see they keep piling up interest in such a way that it is difficult to discover where I am. But a rich lode would enable me to clear off everything."
"I am not sure of that. If during your lifetime they have got a hold on the estates, how do you know they would not appropriate the lode with the rest?"
Sir John looked blank, and for several moments was silent.
"Do you know," he said at length, "that I have already paid three times more in interest than the total amount I borrowed?"
"I can quite believe that," was the answer. "Would you mind telling me the amount you did borrow?"
Sir John named the sum.
Ralph regarded him in silence for several moments.
"It is a large sum," he said at length, "a very large sum. And yet, if I am not greatly mistaken, it is but a trifle in comparison with the value of the lode I have referred to."
"You do not mean that?" the squire said eagerly.