again next instant.

"He borrows three hundred for a year at the outside, and you blackmail
him for eight hundred when the year's up."

"You said 'seven' just now," interrupted Raffles, but in the voice of a
man who was getting a fright.

"You also said 'blackmailing,'" added Dan Levy portentously. "Do you want
to be thrown downstairs?"

"Do _you_ deny the figures?" I retorted.

"No, I don't; have you got his repayment cards?"

"Yes, here in my hands, and they shan't leave them. You see, you're not
aware," I added severely, as I turned to Raffles, "that this young fellow
has already paid up one hundred in instalments; that's what makes the
eight; and all this is what'll happen to you if you've been fool enough
to get into the same boat."

The money-lender had borne with me longer than either of us had expected
that he would; but now he wheeled back his chair and stood up, a pillar
of peril and a mouthful of oaths.

"Is that all you've come to say?" he thundered. "If so, you young devil,
out you go!"

"No, it isn't," said I, spreading out a document attached to the cards of
receipt which Raffles had obtained from Teddy Garland; these I had