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Rh me more closely. "I don't see what bad news you can have to break to me. We have no dealings together," he said, still grumpily. "No; we have no dealings together at present, but we shall have shortly. The fact is, you have got in the way of some new customers of ours, and they are in treaty with us to get you out of it," I said, and sighed again.

Honest John Driver sat quite upright in his chair and stared at me: "I thought—I thought you were my friends," he said, a little faintly.

"You have so many friends," I said, thinking of Gutermann. "But you kept us on strictly business terms, if you remember, by always refusing to pay us."

"I wish I'd never set eyes on you!" he said, in the very accents of the truth.

"Now, you're ungrateful," I said gently. "We have put a clear twelve thousand pounds in your pocket."

"And had £7,615 8s. 6d. yourselves."

"Yes; we ought to have had more, I know."

"More! More!" he cried, in a choking voice. Then he pulled himself together and said, "Who are they—these new customers of yours?"

"I thought you knew that our motto was 'secrecy and despatch.' You've had the secrecy, and now you're going to have the—despatch," I said, with a playful smile.