‘Very well,’ responded Michael with entire composure, ’neither can I see.  But just as you like.  Anything to oblige a friend.’

A glimpse of the ostler’s darkening countenance decided Pitman.  ’All right,’ he said desperately, ‘you drive.  I’ll tell you where to go.’

On Michael in the character of charioteer (since this is not intended to be a novel of adventure) it would be superfluous to dwell at length.  Pitman, as he sat holding on and gasping counsels, sole witness of this singular feat, knew not whether most to admire the driver’s valour or his undeserved good fortune.  But the latter at least prevailed, the cart reached Cannon Street without disaster; and Mr Brown’s piano was speedily and cleverly got on board.

‘Well, sir,’ said the leading porter, smiling as he mentally reckoned up a handful of loose silver, ‘that’s a mortal heavy piano.’

‘It’s the richness of the tone,’ returned Michael, as he drove away.

It was but a little distance in the rain, which now fell thick and quiet, to the neighbourhood of Mr Gideon Forsyth’s chambers in the Temple.  There, in a deserted by-street, Michael drew up the horses and gave them in charge to a blighted shoe-black; and the pair descending from the cart, whereon they had figured so incongruously, set forth on foot for the decisive scene of their adventure.  For the first time Michael displayed a shadow of uneasiness.

‘Are my whiskers right?’ he asked.  ’It would be the devil and all if I was spotted.’

‘They are perfectly in their place,’ returned Pitman, with scant attention.  ’But is my disguise equally effective?  There is nothing more likely than that I should meet some of my patrons.’

‘O, nobody could tell you without your beard,’ said Michael.  ’All you have to do is to remember to speak slow; you speak through your nose already.’

‘I only hope the young man won’t be at home,’ sighed Pitman.

‘And I only hope he’ll be alone,’ returned the lawyer.  ’It will save a precious sight of manoeuvring.’

And sure enough, when they had knocked at the door, Gideon admitted them in person to a room, warmed by a moderate fire, framed nearly to the roof in works connected with the bench of British Themis, and offering, except in one particular, eloquent testimony to the legal zeal of the proprietor.  The one particular was the chimney-piece, which displayed a varied assortment of pipes, tobacco, cigar-boxes, and yellow-backed French novels.

‘Mr Forsyth, I believe?’ It was Michael who thus opened the engagement.  ’We have come to trouble you with a piece of business.  I fear it’s scarcely professional—­’

‘I am afraid I ought to be instructed through a solicitor,’ replied Gideon.

’Well, well, you shall name your own, and the whole affair can be put on a more regular footing tomorrow,’ replied Michael, taking a chair and motioning Pitman to do the same.  ’But you see we didn’t know any solicitors; we did happen to know of you, and time presses.’