"I couldn't let you," answered the little lady.
"You won't be asked," replied the other. "I ought to have done it from the start; but it wasn't very convenient then. It's all right now." The old man didn't say that the reason it was all right was because he was quietly convinced in his own mind that his boy Joe would need no provision now.
Just then the Colonel entered, looking self-conscious. He seemed to know all about it, as indeed he had every right to do, seeing that Mr. Trupp had informed him at length on the telephone half an hour before.
"You know who the mortgagee is?" he asked.
The Colonel on tiptoe led them out into the hall, and showed them through a narrow window Alf sitting at his wheel, looking very funny.
"Our friend of the scene in the Town Hall yesterday," he whispered. "When I went to the bank yesterday to insure the house against bombardment, the clerk looked surprised and said--_You know it's already insured_. I said--_Who by_? He turned up a ledger and showed me the name."
Mr. Trupp got into his car, wrapping himself round with much circumstance.
In the solicitors' office he produced his cheque-book.
"I've been seeing Mrs. Lewknor," he said. "I'll pay off your client now and take over the mortgage myself."
He wrote a cheque then and there, and made it out to Alfred Caspar, who was forthwith called in.
"I'm paying you off your mortgage, Alf," he said. "Give me a receipt, will you?"
Alf with the curious simplicity that often threw his cunning into relief signed the receipt quite unabashed and with evident relief.
"See, I need the money, sir," he said gravely, as he wiped the pen on his sleeve. "The Syndicate's let me in--O, you wouldn't believe! And I got to meet me creditors somehow."
"Well, you've got the money now," answered Mr. Trupp. "But I'm afraid you've made an enemy. And that seems to me a bit of a pity just now."
"Colonel Lewknor?" snorted Alf. "I ain't afraid o him!"
"I don't know," said Mr. Trupp. "It's the day of the soldier."
That evening, after the day's work, Alf was summoned to his employer's study.
"I've been thinking things over, Alfred," said the old man. "There's no particular reason why you shouldn't drive for me for the present if you like--until you're wanted out there. But I shall want you to destroy this."