Suddenly the woman's face brightened. She looked eagerly at Festus
Clasby, then laid the hand of friendship, of appeal, on his arm.

"I have it!" she cried, joyfully.

"Have what?" asked Festus Clasby.

"A way out of the trouble," she said. "A means of saving my brother from
wrong. A way of bringing him his own for the Can with the Diamond
Notch."

"What way might that be?" asked Festus Clasby, his manner growing
sceptical.

"I will go to the shopman with it and get the half-crown. Having got the
half-crown I will hurry back here--or you can come with me--and I will
pay you back your one-and-six. In that way I will make another shilling
and do you no wrong. Is that agreed?"

"It is not agreed," said Festus Clasby. "Give me out the tin can. I am
done with you now."

"It's robbery!" cried the woman, her eyes full of a blazing sudden
anger.

"What is robbery?" asked Festus Clasby.

"Doing me out of a shilling. Wronging my sick brother out of his
earnings. A man worth hundreds, maybe thousands, to stand between a poor
woman and a shilling. I am deceived in you."