man
named Henry Scaddon?«
    »The advantage - a - is problematical; but it may be considerable. It might,
in fact, release you from the necessity of acting as courier, or - a - valet, or
whatever other office you may occupy which prevents you from being your own
master. On the other hand, my acquaintance with your secret is not necessarily a
disadvantage to you. To put the matter in a nutshell, I am not inclined - a -
gratuitously - to do you any harm, and I may be able to do you a considerable
service.«
    »Which you want me to earn somehow?« said Christian. »You offer me a turn in
a lottery?«
    »Precisely. The matter in question is of no earthly interest to you, except
- a - as it may yield you a prize. We lawyers have to do with complicated
questions, and - a - legal subtleties, which are never - a - fully known even to
the parties immediately interested, still less to the witnesses. Shall we agree,
then, that you continue to retain two-thirds of the name which you gained by
exchange, and that you oblige me by answering certain questions as to the
experience of Henry Scaddon?«
    »Very good. Go on.«
    »What articles of property, once belonging to your fellow-prisoner, Maurice
Christian Bycliffe, do you still retain?«
    »This ring,« said Christian, twirling round the fine seal-ring on his
finger, »his watch, and the little matters that hung with it, and a case of
papers. I got rid of a gold snuffbox once when I was hard-up. The clothes are
all gone, of course. We exchanged everything; it was all done in a hurry.
Bycliffe thought we should meet again in England before long, and he was mad to
get there. But that was impossible - I mean that we should meet soon after. I
don't know what's become of him, else I would give him up his papers and the
watch, and so on - though, you know, it was I who did him the service, and he
felt that.«
    »You were at Vesoul together before being moved to Verdun?«
    »Yes.«
    »What else do you know about Bycliffe?«
    »O, nothing very particular,« said Christian, pausing, and rapping his boot
with his cane. »He'd been in the Hanoverian army - a high-spirited fellow, took
nothing easily; not overstrong in