"It will be no token of business to see your cart and the provisions it
contains driven into the yard of the barracks. All the people of this
town will see it, for they have many eyes. The people of trade will be
coming to their doors, speaking of it. 'A man's property was molested,'
they will say. 'What property?' will be asked. 'The Can with the Diamond
Notch,' they will answer; 'the man of substance conspired with the thief
to make away with it.' These are the words that will be spoken in the
streets."

Festus Clasby set great store on his name, the name he had got painted
for the eye of the country over his door.

"I will be known to the police as one extensive in my dealings," he
said. "They will not couple me with this man who is known as one living
outside of the law."

"It is not for the Peelers to put the honest man on one side and the
thief on the other. That will be for the court. You will stand with him
upon my charge. The Peelers will say to you, 'We know you to be a man of
great worth, and the law will uphold you.' But the law is slow, and a
man's good name goes fast.'"

Festus Clasby fingered his money in his pocket, and the touch of it made
him struggle. "The can may be this man's for all I know. You have no
brother, and I believe you to be a fraud."

"That, too, will be for the law to decide. If I have a brother, the law
will produce him when his fever is ended. If I have no brother the law
will so declare it. If my brother makes a Can with the Diamond Notch,