a

apprenticed to all the branches of the business. You may have seen the bangles and other trifles which I sometimes make, and if so you will admit my skill as a workman. Ten years ago my father died. He left a fair business, in which I inherited a share, but as the other partner was a most offensive uncle I sold my interest to him for cash. Then I set up as a gentleman for a year, wasting a lot of money and getting little in return. After that, seeing the urgent necessity, I cast about for the means of earning a decent income. It was then that the profitable use to which the low price of silver could be put suggested itself to my mind. You will please understand at once, Mr. Gatepath, that I

. am no vulgar “smasher.”

smasher.” I “utter false coin," as the lawyers say, but at the same time I give people precisely the same value for their florins and half-crowns as the Mint does. I coin, Mr. Gatepath, in standard silver.'

Those words explained all that had hitherto puzzled me. I now understood Tantifer's long years of unchallenged safety. His coins had to endure the single test of workmanship, and the man was an artist! I had seen his work. Instinctively my hand moved towards my pocket.

Tantifer smiled. “It is quite likely. My money passes and circulates everywhere. When I began to produce silver coins experimentally, nine years ago, pure silver was 38. 6d. an ounce, or 42 shillings a pound Troy. Standard silver is not pure. The pure metal is too soft, so we have to harden it by adding copper. Standard silver contains thirty-seven fortieths of the pure metal, and cost, when I began, about 39 shillings a pound. The market value has fallen steadily ever since, until I can now buy my raw material at 25 shillings a pound Troy. You may not be aware that a pound of standard silver will manufacture into 66 shillings, or into a corresponding number of other coins. That is to say, the metal which now costs me 25 shillings to purchase is worth 66 shillings the instant it is coined. You will see that the basis of my fortune has been the fact that silver coins are mere tokens, of which the nominal value is fixed and is independent of the intrinsic value. The difference between these values leaves a handsome margin of profit, so handsome that for every three guineas' worth of coins which I now produce nearly two guineas is clear gain. No one but an ignorant amateur would use a base metal when he could buy genuine silver so cheaply. In the early days of my work the profit was less than during recent years, but it was still sufficient to repay me lavishly for my labour. I began by making moulds of plaster of Paris from newly minted coins, and I cast my imitations from these moulds. The process was long and troublesome. The coins needed a great deal of highly skilled attention before being perfect, and I never felt quite safe with them. At that time I could detect minute differences between my own coins and the genuine products of the Mint. I can do so no longer. The change is due to better apparatus. My press over there is a beautiful instrument. The finer parts I made myself, and the heavy castings were done from my own patterns. The dies grip the smooth silver with the force of two tons; all that I do is to sit on the lever. I cast my steel dies from bright fresh coins, and finish them by hand. I melt down the ingots of bullion, recast the metal into thin sheets, stamp out the rough discs, mill and raise the edges. I do everything which is done in the Mint, and I do it all by myself.'

Criminal as the man legally was, I admired his knowledge and courage and wonderful skill. Everyone whose pocket contained money was bis natural enemy. He had tapped the life-blood of a civilised state so cleverly, that the stupid monster had never felt the knife, nor had been conscious of the long drain upon its heart. He was as one who had conquered lions, only to be fatally stung by a scorpion. He who had for nine years defied a government was himself flung to the ground by a woman, by a woman, too, who had unconsciously blundered into victory. However fast he made money, his wife could spend it faster, and against her his skill and his courage were alike vain. I could not wonder at the grey hair and the lines on his face; it was the bitterest, stupidest, most pitiful defeat that ever a strong man suffered.

'I bought the lease of this house,' went on Tantifer, 'with the relics of my own inheritance, and I built this room so that I might coin in secret. My knowledge of chemistry is sufficient to let me pass as an amateur enthusiast, and I occasionally turn out silver trinkets to withdraw attention from my considerable purchases of metal. I do not try to conceal the fact of my secrecy, as a parade of candour is my best means of self-preservation. My iron door is a necessary protection against servants and inquisitive callers—such as you were once yourself, Mr. Gatepath-and I readily admit its existence to my friends. It is one of " Tantifer's fads” and has been talked about for years. Nobody takes my concealment nor my science seriously.'

'I do not quite understand,' I put in, 'how you dispose of your manufactures. Surely that was a great difficulty. Silver is not a legal tender, and

'Of course not,' interrupted Tantifer rather irritably. 'I cannot pay with silver a greater amount than forty shillings, but what does that matter? You are on the edge of a subject, Gatepath, of which I know the length and the breadth and the height. The disposal of my coins was never a difficulty, because I adapted myself to existing conditions. In the first place, I am not a bungling amateur who makes half-a-crown and then runs off with the hot coin to a public-house to buy beer. You haven't got that elementary idea out of your head yet. I never get rid of my coins within twelve months at least of manufacture. They have time to tone down in colour, to take on a disguise of use, and by knocking one another about to wear away sharp edges. My attention, for convenience of manufacture and to save time, is confined exclusively to florins and half-crowns. I make them with the dates of each year while it is current, and do not attempt to pass them until the year following. As I do not dispose of my whole stock of any one date, I never lack a pleasing variety. For several years past I have coined the silver equivalents of 301. every week. That is about my limit; there is much to do, and everything must be done by myself. Twice or three times a week I put 101. worth of miscellaneous florins and half-crowns into my pockets and take the train for some part of London. Any part will do; there is a fine field of choice, and little need for repetition. The rest is child's play. I enter a shop, make & small purchase, and beg to be obliged with gold for ten shillings' worth of silver. Tradesmen are glad to get change and make no difficulty. By this means I can easily alter my load from silver to gold in an hour. As for danger there is none. I would not hesitate to pass one of my half-crowns on the Deputy Master of the Mint. You smile, confound you! Take these and be convinced of the perfection of my work.'

Tantifer moved quickly from one large chest to another, and then brought me nine half-crowns dated consecutively from 1889 to 1897. I took them, and I have them still. I have weighed those half-crowns, pored over them with a magnifier, compared them with what purported (I am sure of nothing now) to be genuine coinage of like dates; I have even shaved off little pieces for analysis by an assayer, and I am convinced. My heirs will

find those half-crowns and spend them without a suspicion of their origin. In the meantime I cherish and delight in them; I rejoice wickedly in the perfection of their falseness. I own them. with as pleased a conscience as I should a universally accredited Raphael which I secretly knew to be a copy.

There is little more to be said,' observed this Prince of Coiners. The game has been well played. For reasons which are plain, I had nearly decided to throw up my hand before your obtrusive head popped over my window sash-that was a pretty shot, Gatepath, a short four inches to the left and you wouldn't have been listening to this story. Now all is over. You have discovered me? I really do not see the use of further concealment. No, I'm not going to surrender to the police. I'm not a fool. I am going to return to the paths of virtue and become once more a poor bachelor.'

'Tantifer,' I said, 'the moral question is no affair of mine, and I will spare you an impertinent sermon. But this I will say. You made a great mistake when you married before having amassed a sufficient fortune to give up this unlawful business, and you made a still greater mistake in withholding your confidence from Miss Maud Winstanley. A woman will forgive any crime, except deception, in the man she loves.'

'Exactly,' he muttered sadly; in the man she loves.'

Then the respectable Roger Gatepath arose and stretched out a hand to the criminal. I am glad that I did it. It may be that at the moment I accounted it a kindly act of condescension, but afterwards-perhaps the reader will presently understand what were my feelings afterwards.

Thank you. You will come again, Mr. Gatepath, once more -the day after to-morrow--at noon.'

As I walked away it came into my mind with a rush of admiring wonder that he had never asked for my secrecy. He knew that I could by a word deliver him up to years of imprisonment, yet he had me in his power and exacted no promise. The possibility of being betrayed by me had never occurred to him. And this was the man whom Lady Browne, Lady Browne forsooth, had pretended was not a gentleman! I had come out that night a partisan of the wife; on my return I was not far from transferring my allegiance to the husband.

When at the appointed time I entered Tantifer's diningroom, the air felt charged with strange emotions. I was worried VOL. V. NO. 26, N.S. 11

and nervous. My bachelor life has moved in pleasant places; I am unused to contact with crime and to feel the waves of strong passions about me. Maud Tantifer and her mother were already in the room. Maud favoured me with a grave bow, but Mrs. Winstanley ignored me altogether. She was blinded by her own unspeakable woe. Maud looked like a statue in dull marble. While I was observing my companions, the door opened and Tantifer strode in.

No one spoke for a few minutes, and then, to my angry astonishment, Mrs. Winstanley broke into a roar of words and tears. 'I can't help it, Maud, I really can't. I thought you would be so happy. Mr. Tantifer had such a nice house and so much money, and now you say he has nothing and ought to go to prison. You say he isn't going to make any more money for you to throw away, and I'm sure I don't blame him for that. But, perhaps, if you promise to be more careful-I'm sure I brought you up most economically-he'll forgive you and go on with his business. I always said Mr. Tantifer was too kind and generous; didn't I, Mr. Gatepath? It is difficult enough to get along by myself, but if I have you to keep too?

• Maud,' came Tantifer's great voice, swallowing up the miserable creature's babble, does your mother know how I make my money?

His wife bent her head.

'I have called you three together to state my intentions as regards the future. Let us dismiss the past. You all know what my manner of life has been, and you all know why my occupation has now been permanently abandoned. You understand, Mrs. Winstanley, permanently abandoned. My wife will, in future, regulate her expenses at her pleasure ; she will be responsible to herself alone and be herself the sole sufferer by any excess. She will live where, and in the manner that, she pleases. I make no complaint. I have myself acted wrongly through my ignorance of women; I have assumed love where love did not exist, I have mistaken acquiescence for affection, and I have foolishly fretted at a coldness which was the natural consequence of outraged respectability. The fault was mine alone.

I married your daughter, Mrs. Winstanley, because I loved her, and I leave her now because-because I love her still.'

My chair was placed beside that of Mrs. Tantifer, and I heard her breathing quicken. Tantifer leaned against the mantelpiece,