THE doctor (like me) had his shoes off. The doctor (like me) hadcome in without making the least noise. He cocked the pistolwithout saying a word. I felt that I was probably standing faceto face with death, and I too said not a word. We two Rogueslooked each other steadily and silently in the face--he, themighty and prosperous villain, with my life in his hands: I, theabject and poor scamp, waiting his mercy.

It must have been at least a minute after I heard the click ofthe cocked pistol before he spoke.

"How did you get here?" he asked.

The quiet commonplace terms in which he put his question, and theperfect composure and politeness of his manner, reminded me alittle of Gentleman Jones. But the doctor was much the morerespectable-looking man of the two; his baldness was moreintellectual and benevolent; there was a delicacy and proprietyin the pulpiness of his fat white chin, a bland bagginess in hisunwhiskered cheeks, a reverent roughness about his eyebrows and afullness in his lower eyelids, which raised him far higher,physiognomically speaking, in the social scale, than my oldprison acquaintance. Put a shovel-hat on Gentleman Jones, and theeffect would only have been eccentric; put the same covering onthe head of Doctor Dulcifer, and the effect would have beenstrictly episcopal.

"How did you get here?" he repeated, still without showing theleast irritation.

I told him how I had got in at the second-floor window, withoutconcealing a word of the truth. The gravity of the situation, andthe sharpness of the doctor's intellects, as expressed in hiseyes, made anything like a suppression of facts on my part adesperately dangerous experiment.

"You wanted to see what I was about up here, did you?" said he,when I had ended my confession. "Do you know?"

The pistol barrel touched my cheek as he said the last words. Ithought of all the suspicious objects scattered about the room,of the probability that he was only putting this question to trymy courage, of the very likely chance that he would shoot meforthwith, if I began to prevaricate. I thought of these things,and boldly answered:

"Yes, I do know."

He looked at me reflectively; then said, in low, thoughtfultones, speaking, not to me, but entirely to himself:

"Suppose I shoot him?"

I saw in his eye, that if I flinched, he would draw the trigger.

"Suppose you trust me?" I said, without moving a muscle.

"I trusted you, as an honest man, downstairs, and I find you,like a thief, up here," returned the doctor, with aself-satisfied smile at the neatness of his own retort. "No," hecontinued, relapsing into soliloquy: "there is risk every way;but the least risk perhaps is to shoot him."

"Wrong," said I. "There are relations of mine who have apecuniary interest in my life. I am the main condition of acontingent reversion in their favor. If I am missed, I shall beinquired after." I have wondered since at my own coolness in theface of the doctor's pistol; but my life depended on my keepingmy self-possession, and the desperate nature of the situationlent me a desperate courage.

"How do I know you are not lying?" he asked.

"Have I not spoken the truth, hitherto?"

Those words made him hesitate. He lowered the pistol slowly tohis side. I began to breathe freely.

"Trust me," I repeated. "If you don't believe I would hold mytongue about what I have seen here, for your sake, you may becertain that I would for--"

"For my daughter's," he interposed, with a sarcastic smile.

I bowed with all imaginable cordiality. The doctor waved hispistol in the air contemptuously.

"There are two ways of making you hold your tongue," he said."The first is shooting you; the second is making a felon of you.On consideration, after what you have said, the risk in eithercase seems about equal. I am naturally a humane man; your familyhave done me no injury; I will not be the cause of their losingmoney; I won't take your life, I'll have your character. We areall felons on this floor of the house. You have come amongus--you shall be one of us. Ring that bell."

He pointed with the pistol to a bell-handle behind me. I pulledit in silence.

Felon! The word has an ugly sound--a very ugly sound. But,considering how near the black curtain had been to falling overthe adventurous drama of my life, had I any right to complain ofthe prolongation of the scene, however darkly it might look atfirst? Besides, some of the best feelings of our common nature(putting out of all question the value which men so unaccountablypersist in setting on their own lives), impelled me, ofnecessity, to choose the alternative of felonious existence inpreference to that of respectable death. Love and Honor bade melive to marry Alicia; and a sense of family duty made me shrinkfrom occasioning a loss of three thousand pounds to myaffectionate sister. Perish the far-fetched scruples which wouldbreak the heart of one lovely woman, and scatter to the winds thepin-money of another!

"If you utter one word in contradiction of anything I say when myworkmen come into the room," said the doctor, uncocking hispistol as soon as I had rung the bell, "I shall change my mindabout leaving your life and taking your character. Remember that;and keep a guard on your tongue."

The door opened, and four men entered. One was an old man whom Ihad not seen before; in the other three I recognized theworkman-like footman, and the two sinister artisans whom I hadmet at the house-gate. They all started, guiltily enough, atseeing me.

"Let me introduce you," said the doctor, taking me by the arm."Old File and Young File, Mill and Screw--Mr. Frank Softly. Wehave nicknames in this workshop, Mr. Softly, derived humorouslyfrom our professional tools and machinery. When you have beenhere long enough, you will get a nickname, too. Gentlemen," hecontinued, turning to the workmen, "this is a new recruit, with aknowledge of chemistry which will be useful to us. He isperfectly well aware that the nature of our vocation makes ussuspicious of all newcomers, and he, therefore, desires to giveyou practical proof that he is to be depended on, by makinghalf-a-crown immediately, and sending the same up, along with ourhandiwork, directed in his own handwriting, to our estimablecorrespondents in London. When you have all seen him do this ofhis own free will, and thereby put his own life as completelywithin the power of the law as we have put ours, you will knowthat he is really one of us, and will be under no apprehensionsfor the future. Take great pains with him, and as soon as heturns out a tolerably neat article, from the simple flattedplates, under your inspection, let me know. I shall take a fewhours' repose on my camp-bed in the study, and shall be foundthere whenever you want me."

He nodded to us all round in the most friendly manner, and leftthe room.

I looked with considerable secret distrust at the four gentlemenwho were to instruct me in the art of making false coin. YoungFile was the workman-like footman; Old File was his father; Milland Screw were the two sinister artisans. The man of the companywhose looks I liked least was Screw. He had wicked littletwinkling eyes--and they followed me about treacherously wheneverI moved. "You and I, Screw, are likely to quarrel," I thought tomyself, as I tried vainly to stare him out of countenance.

I entered on my new and felonious functions forthwith. Resistancewas useless, and calling for help would have been sheer insanity.It was midnight; and, even supposing the windows had not beenbarred , the house was a mile from any human habitation.Accordingly, I abandoned myself to fate with my usualmagnanimity. Only let me end in winning Alicia, and I am resignedto the loss of whatever small shreds and patches ofrespectability still hang about me--such was my philosophy. Iwish I could have taken higher moral ground with equallyconsoling results to my own feelings.

The same regard for the well-being of society which led me toabstain from entering into particulars on the subject of OldMaster-making, when I was apprenticed to Mr. Ishmael Pickup, nowcommands me to be equally discreet on the kindred subject ofHalf-Crown-making, under the auspices of Old File, Young File,Mill, and Screw.

Let me merely record that I was a kind of machine in the hands ofthese four skilled workmen. I moved from room to room, and fromprocess to process, the creature of their directing eyes andguiding hands. I cut myself, I burned myself, I got speechlessfrom fatigue, and giddy from want of sleep. In short, the sun ofthe new day was high in the heavens before it was necessary todisturb Doctor Dulcifer. It had absolutely taken me almost aslong to manufacture a half-a-crown feloniously as it takes arespectable man to make it honestly. This is saying a great deal;but it is literally true for all that.

Looking quite fresh and rosy after his night's sleep, the doctorinspected my coin with the air of a schoolmaster examining alittle boy's exercise; then handed it to Old File to put thefinished touches and correct the mistakes. It was afterwardreturned to me. My own hand placed it in one of the rouleaux offalse half-crowns; and my own hand also directed the spuriouscoin, when it had been safely packed up, to a certain Londondealer who was to be on the lookout for it by the next night'smail. That done, my initiation was so far complete.

"I have sent for your luggage, and paid your bill at the inn,"said the doctor; "of course in your name. You are now to enjoythe hospitality that I could not extend to you before. A roomupstairs has been prepared for you. You are not exactly in astate of confinement; but, until your studies are completed, Ithink you had better not interrupt them by going out."

"A prisoner!" I exclaimed aghast.

"Prisoner is a hard word," answered the doctor. "Let us say, aguest under surveillance."

"Do you seriously mean that you intend to keep me shut up in thispart of the house, at your will and pleasure?" I inquired, myheart sinking lower and lower at every word I spoke.

"It is very spacious and airy," said the doctor; "as for thelower part of the house, you would find no company there, so youcan't want to go to it."

"No company!" I repeated faintly.

"No. My daughter went away this morning for change of air andscene, accompanied by my housekeeper. You look astonished, mydear sir--let me frankly explain myself. While you were therespectable son of Doctor Softly, and grandson of LadyMalkinshaw, I was ready enough to let my daughter associate withyou, and should not have objected if you had married her off myhands into a highly-connected family. Now, however, when you arenothing but one of the workmen in my manufactory of money, yoursocial position is seriously altered for the worse; and, as Icould not possibly think of you for a son-in-law, I haveconsidered it best to prevent all chance of your communicatingwith Alicia again, by sending her away from this house while youare in it. You will be in it until I have completed certainbusiness arrangements now in a forward state of progress--afterthat, you may go away if you please. Pray remember that you haveto thank yourself for the position you now stand in; and do methe justice to admit that my conduct toward you is remarkablystraightforward, and perfectly natural under all thecircumstances."

These words fairly overwhelmed me. I did not even make an attemptto answer them. The hard trials to my courage, endurance, andphysical strength, through which I had passed within the lasttwelve hours, had completely exhausted all my powers ofresistance. I went away speechless to my own room; and when Ifound myself alone there, burst out crying. Childish, was it not?

When I had been rested and strengthened by a few hours' sleep, Ifound myself able to confront the future with tolerable calmness.

What would it be best for me to do? Ought I to attempt to make myescape? I did not despair of succeeding; but when I began tothink of the consequences of success, I hesitated. My chiefobject now was, not so much to secure my own freedom, as to findmy way to Alicia. I had never been so deeply and desperately inlove with her as I was now, when I knew she was separated fromme. Suppose I succeeded in escaping from the clutches of DoctorDulcifer--might I not be casting myself uselessly on the world,without a chance of finding a single clew to trace her by?Suppose, on the other hand, that I remained for the present inthe red-brick house--should I not by that course of conduct beputting myself in the best position for making discoveries?

In the first place, there was the chance that Alicia might findsome secret means of communicating with me if I remained where Iwas. In the second place, the doctor would, in all probability,have occasion to write to his daughter, or would be likely toreceive letters from her; and, if I quieted all suspicion on myaccount, by docile behavior, and kept my eyes sharply on thelookout, I might find opportunities of surprising the secrets ofhis writing-desk. I felt that I need be under no restraints ofhonor with a man who was keeping me a prisoner, and who had madean accomplice of me by threatening my life. Accordingly, whileresolving to show outwardly an amiable submission to my fate, Idetermined at the same time to keep secretly on the watch, and totake the very first chance of outwitting Doctor Dulcifer thatmight happen to present itself. When we next met I was perfectlycivil to him. He was too well-bred a man not to match me on thecommon ground of courtesy.

"Permit me to congratulate you," he said, "on the improvement inyour manner and appearance. You are beginning well, Francis. Goon as you have begun."