“Very late,” said Mr. Teak.  “I can’t think—­Ah, there he is!”

He took a deep breath and clenched ’his hands together.  By the time Mr.
Chase came into the room he was able to greet him with a stealthy wink. 
Mr. Chase, with a humorous twist of his mouth, winked back.

“We’ve ’ad a upset,” said Mr. Teak, in warning tones.

“Eh?” said the other, as Mrs. Teak threw her apron over her head and sank into a chair.  “What about?”

In bated accents, interrupted at times by broken murmurs from his wife, Mr. Teak informed him of the robbery.  Mr. Chase, leaning against the doorpost, listened with open mouth and distended eyeballs.  Occasional interjections of pity and surprise attested his interest.  The tale finished, the gentlemen exchanged a significant wink and sighed in unison.

“And now,” said Mr. Teak an hour later, after his wife had retired, “where is it?”

“Ah, that’s the question,” said Mr. Chase, roguishly.  “I wonder where it can be?”

“I—­I hope it’s in a safe place,” said Mr. Teak, anxiously.  “Where ’ave you put it?”

“Me?” said Mr. Chase.  “Who are you getting at?  I ain’t put it anywhere.  You know that.”

“Don’t play the giddy goat,” said the other, testily.  “Where’ve you hid it?  Is it safe?”

Mr. Chase leaned back in his chair and, shaking his head at him, smiled approvingly.  “You’re a little wonder, that’s what you are, Gussie,” he remarked.  “No wonder your pore wife is took in so easy.”

Mr. Teak sprang up in a fury.  “Don’t play the fool,” he said hoarsely.  “Where’s the money?  I want it.  Now, where’ve you put it?”

“Go on,” said Mr. Chase, with a chuckle.  “Go on.  Don’t mind me.  You ought to be on the stage, Gussie, that’s where you ought to be.”

“I’m not joking,” said Mr. Teak, in a trembling voice, “and I don’t want you to joke with me.  If you think you are going off with my money, you’re mistook.  If you don’t tell me in two minutes where it is, I shall give you in charge for theft.”

“Oh” said Mr. Chase.  He took a deep breath.  “Oh, really!” he said.  “I wouldn’t ’ave thought it of you, Gussie.  I wouldn’t ’ave thought you’d have played it so low down.  I’m surprised at you.”

“You thought wrong, then,” said the other.

“Trying to do me out o’ my twenty pounds, that’s what you are,” said Mr. Chase, knitting his brows.  “But it won’t do, my boy.  I wasn’t born yesterday.  Hand it over, afore I lose my temper.  Twenty pounds I want of you, and I don’t leave this room till I get it.”

Speechless with fury, Mr. Teak struck at him.  The next moment the supper-table was overturned with a crash, and Mr. Chase, with his friend in his powerful grasp, was doing his best, as he expressed it, to shake the life out of him.  A faint scream sounded from above, steps pattered on the stairs, and Mrs. Teak, with a red shawl round her shoulders, burst ’hurriedly into the room.  Mr. Chase released Mr. Teak, opened his mouth to speak, and then, thinking better of it, dashed into the passage, took his hat from the peg, and, slamming the front door with extraordinary violence, departed.