"Joe? Oh yes, I know Joe."
"You know him intimately?"
"Yes, I may say so."
"You know that he forged his grandfather's name; that he is a profligate and a spendthrift, and that he has taken or borrowed from his grandfather whatever money he could get, and that—in short, he is a friend of your own?"
It was not until after his visitor had gone that Mr. Chalker understood, and began to resent this last observation.
"Go on," he said. "I know all about Joe."
"Good. Then, if you can tell me anything about him which may be of use to me I will do this. I will pay you double the valuation of Mr. Emblem's shop, in return, for a receipt in full. If you can not, you may proceed to sell everything by auction."
Mr. Chalker hesitated. A valuation would certainly give a higher figure than a forced sale, and then that valuation doubled!
"Well," he said, "I don't know. It's a cruel hard case to be done out of my money. How am I to find out whether anything I tell you would be of use to you or not? What kind of thing do you want? How do I know that if you get what you want, you won't swear it is of no use to you?"
"You have the word of one who never broke his word."