Eben McClure took the flout as he would have taken a kick from that honoured double-soled shoe.
"Cousin Kennedy," he said, "I have no purpose but to do you service. As you are good enough to remark, I have nothing to complain of in the service of His Majesty, and it shall be my first duty and pleasure to repay to you the little advance you were good enough to make me--with interest."
Kennedy McClure looked his visitor over coolly.
"You have been robbing the stage?" he demanded.
The spy laughed, but it was a laugh from the teeth out-wards. As the French say, he laughed "yellow." Nevertheless, he drew a pocket-book from his breast, and suggested that if his kind cousin could spare the time, perhaps it would be as well for them to speak together in a more retired place.
"Come ben," said
