eyes.

"Take an hour or two to consider it," said the son, indulgently. "If you
agree to my proposition, I shall want it put down in black and white and
properly signed. If you do not agree to it, I start back for town by
this night's mail."

"James, James, you are one too many for me!" said the old man,
pathetically. "Let us go and dine."

The first thing Madgin junior did after they got back to the hotel was
to place before his father a sheet of note-paper, an inkstand and a pen.
"Write," he said; and the old man wrote to his dictation:--

"I, Solomon Madgin, on the part of Lady Chillington, of Deepley
Walls, do hereby promise and bind myself to pay over into the hands
of my son, James Madgin, the sum of fifteen hundred pounds (£1,500)
on the day that the aforesaid James Madgin places safely in my
hands the stone known as the Hara Diamond.

"Should the aforesaid James Madgin, from causes beyond his own
control, find himself unable to obtain possession of the said
Diamond, I, Solomon Madgin, bind myself to reimburse him in the sum
of two hundred guineas (£210) as payment in full for the time and
labour expended by him in his search for the Hara Diamond.

"(Signed) SOLOMON MADGIN.

"July 21st, 18--."