“Then you could pity them?  Even while you were robbing them?”

“Why not,” he answered.  “There was no reason because I had the stones that I should not feel sorry for the pain they had suffered.  I had to remember how near I’d been to it myself.”

This speech sounded very pretty though somewhat illogical.

“And pray how did you know that they had called in my assistance?”

“Because I kept my eyes on them.  I know Mr. Kitwater of old, you see.  I watched them go into your office and come out from a shop on the other side of the street.”

The whole mystery was now explained.  What an amount of trouble I should have been spared had I only known this before?

“You did not approve then of my being imported into the case?”

“I distinctly disapproved,” he answered.  “I know your reputation, of course, and I began to see that if you took up their case for them I should in all probability have to climb down.”

“It is doubtless for that reason you called upon me, representing yourself to be Mr. Bayley, Managing Director of that South American Mining Company?  I can now quite understand your motive.  You wanted to get me out of the way in order that I might not hunt you?  Is that not so?”

“You hit the nail upon the head exactly.  But you were virtuous, and would not swallow the bait.  It would have simplified matters from my point of view if you had.  I should not have been compelled to waste my money upon those two roughs, nor would you have spent an exceedingly uncomfortable quarter of an hour in that doorway in Holywell street.”

This was news indeed.  So he had been aware of my presence there?  I put the question to him.

“Oh!  Yes!  I knew you were there,” he said with a laugh.  “And I can tell you I did not like the situation one bit.  As a matter of fact I found that it required all my nerve to pretend that I did not know it.  Every moment I expected you to come out and speak to me.  I can assure you the failure of my plot was no end of a disappointment to me.  I had expected to see the men I had sent after you, and instead I found you myself.”

“Upon my word, Mr. Hayle, if I cannot appreciate your actions I must say I admire your candour.  I can also add that in a fairly long experience of—­of——­”

“Why not say of criminals at once, Mr. Fairfax?” he asked with a smile.  “I assure you I shall not be offended.  We have both our own views on this question, and you of course are entitled to air yours if it pleases you.  You were about to observe that——­”

“That in all my experience I had never met any one who could so calmly own to an attempt to murder a fellow-being.  But supposing we now come to business.”

“With all my heart,” he answered.  “I am as anxious as yourself to get everything settled.  You will admit that it is rather hard lines on a man who can lay his hands upon a quarter of a million of money, to have a gentleman like yourself upon his trail, and, instead of being able to enjoy himself, to be compelled to remain continually in hiding.  I am an individual who likes to make the most of his life.  I also enjoy the society of my fellow-men.”