"I regret to find, sir," he said, "that I have lost my place in my
employer's estimation. The man to whom you confide the superintendence
of your clerks and the transaction of your business has, I venture to
think, some claim (under the present circumstances) to be trusted."

The banker was now offended on his side.

"I readily admit your claim," he answered, "when you are sitting at
your desk in my office. But, even in these days of strikes,
co-operations, and bank holidays, an employer has one privilege
left--he has not ceased to be a Man, and he has not forfeited a man's
right to keep his own secrets. I fail to see anything in my conduct
which has given you just reason to complain."

Dennis, rebuked, made his bow in silence, and withdrew.

Did these acts of humility mean that he submitted? They meant exactly
the contrary. He had made up his mind that Sir Giles Mountjoy's motives
should, sooner or later, cease to be mysteries to Sir Giles Mountjoy's
clerk.

II

CAREFULLY following his instructions, he consulted the third volume of
Gibbon's great History, and found, between the seventy-eighth and
seventy-ninth pages, something remarkable this time.

It was a sheet of delicately-made paper, pierced with a number of
little holes, infinitely varied in size, and cut with the smoothest
precision. Having secured this curious object, while the librarian's