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286 crowd, and they nudged each other. "Our Tom will make them sit up."

"Are you ready to write?" demanded Tom of the schoolmaster.

"Quite ready, Mr. Pitts."

"Then put 'without prejudice' again, and the date. 'Gentlemen,—Yours to hand, and contents noted.' Always begin that way. It adds to their panic. It shows we know something of our business out here."

"‘Contents noted,'" repeated the schoolmaster.

"‘The twenty-five pounds is good enough as far as it goes, and I shall be obliged if you will enclose a post-office order for that amount in your next letter.’"

"Good man!" cried the assemblage.

"‘But what am I to do when the twenty-five pounds is gone? Why, my score at the Mermaid Inn is half that amount.’"

"No, no, Tom, that be a lie," protested old Stover, while his wife's eyes blazed.

"It isn't anything like that, Tom," corroborated the inn-keeper.

"But don't you see that in London it makes Ned Stover a man of importance? 'Aha,' they'll say, 'twelve pounds ten for drinks? He do be a-going it.’"

This argument appealed strongly to the breathless onlookers.

"‘What I demand is the twenty-five pounds paid