I told you I was always square with my pals.

Here's a thousand for you, Angelica,"-- slipping two bills under Mrs.De Peyster's pillow,--"and a thousand for you, Matilda,"-- thrusting the amount into her hands,--"and a thousand for your dear brother Archibald,"-- slipping his share into a vest pocket.
Neither of the two women dared refuse the money.
"But--but," Mrs.De Peyster gasped thickly, "it's an outrageous forgery!" "A forgery, I grant you, my dear Angelica," Mr.Pyecroft said good-humoredly.

"But if by outrageous you mean crude or obvious, I beg to correct you.

Even if I must say it myself, that forgery was strictly first-class." "But it's a forgery!" repeated Mrs.De Peyster.
"My dears, don't you worry about that," he reassured them soothingly.
"There'll be no comeback.

That detective and his agency, and Mrs.
Allistair behind them, first tried robbery, then tried bribery.
They're all in bad themselves.