He took the clerk into his confidence at last.
"Let us begin at the beginning," he said.

"There is the letter you saw on my bed, when I first sent for you.

I found it waiting on my table when I woke; and I don't know who put it there.

Read it." Dennis read as follows: "Sir Giles Mountjoy,--I have a disclosure to make, in which one of the members of your family is seriously interested.

Before I can venture to explain myself, I must be assured that I can trust to your good faith.
As a test of this, I require you to fulfil the two conditions that follow--and to do it without the slightest loss of time.