helping to produce. No; Thorndyke is a man who plays a single-handed
game and no one knows what cards he holds until he lays them on the
table."

My companion considered this statement in silence while I congratulated
myself on having parried, with great adroitness, a rather inconvenient
question. But the time was not far distant when I should have occasion
to reproach myself bitterly for having been so explicit and emphatic.

"My uncle's condition," Walter resumed after a pause, "is a pretty
miserable one at present, with this horrible affair added to his own
personal worries."

"Has he any special trouble besides this, then?" I asked.

"Why, haven't you heard? I thought you knew about it, or I shouldn't
have spoken--not that it is in any way a secret, seeing that it is
public property in the city. The fact is that his financial affairs are
a little entangled just now."

"Indeed!" I exclaimed, considerably startled by this new development.

"Yes, things have taken a rather awkward turn, though I think he will
pull through all right. It is the usual thing, you know--investments, or
perhaps one should say speculations. He appears to have sunk a lot of
capital in mines--thought he was 'in the know,' not unnaturally; but it
seems he wasn't after all, and the things have gone wrong, leaving him
with a deal more money than he can afford locked up and the possibility
of a dead loss if they don't revive. Then there are these infernal
diamonds. He is not morally responsible, we know; but it is a question