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304 cause you a moment's worry. Only, on next Thursday week, I shall call here for my cheque."

He stared at me with a mixed expression of amazement and pleasure.

"Then you have been successful!" he gasped. "How?"

"The matter concerns myself," I replied with a smile. "To-day is Friday; on Thursday week, or at latest on Friday, I shall ask you for the cheque—that's all."

"And it will be ready for you, d'Escombe, with a hundred added to it," was the old fellow's reply. "By Jove! when I pay you I really believe my rheumatism will be cured. I shall enter upon a new lease of life."

"Of course you will," I said cheerfully.

"Didn't I tell you there was no reason whatever to worry?"

"Ah, yes. But I didn't know that you were so plucky," was his reply. "Most doctors wear a mask of respectability, and would be horrified at any suggestion of the kind. Yet you made it yourself."

"As a matter of business, purely," I declared. "By releasing you from a difficulty I shall also be benefiting myself."

"I like you, d'Escombe," he said, his big