is engagements. And he had done it. The price
might be a great one, but he was prepared to pay. At any moment
the sensational news might be upon the placards, and the whole
world might know that the man who had been murdered in Crooked
Friars last night had first been robbed of twenty thousand pounds.
So far he had felt himself curiously free from anything in the
shape of direct apprehensions. Already, however, the shadow was
beginning to fall. Even as he entered his office, the sight of a
stranger offering office files for sale made him start. He half
expected to feel a hand upon his shoulder, a few words whispered in
his ear. He set his teeth tight. This was his risk and he must
take it.

For several hours he remained in his office, engaged in a scheme
for the redirection of its policy. With the absence of Morrison,
too, there were other changes to be made,--changes in the nature
of the business they were prepared to handle, limits to be fixed.
It was not until nearly luncheon time that the telephone, the
simultaneous arrival of several clients, and the breathless entry
of his own head-clerk rushing in from the house, told him what was
going on.

"'Unions' have taken their turn at last!" the clerk announced, in
an excited tone. "They sagged a little this morning, but since
eleven they have been going steadily up. Just now there seems to
be a boom. Listen."

Laverick heard the roar of voices in the street, and nodded. He
was prepared to be surprised at nothing.

"They were bound to go within a day or two," he remarked. "Morrison
wasn't an absolute idiot."

The luncheon hour passed. The excitement in the city grew. By
three o'clock, ten thousand pounds would have covered all of
Laverick's engagements. Just before closing-time, it was even
doubtful whether he might not have borrowed every penny without
security at all. He took it all quite calmly and as a matter of
course. He left the office a little earlier than usual, and every
man whom he met stopped to slap him on the back and chaff him. He
escaped as soon as he could, bought the evening papers, found a
taxicab, and as soon as he had started spread them open. It was
a remarkable proof of the man's self-restraint that at no time
during the afternoon had he sent out for one of these early editions.
He turned them over now with firm fingers. There was absolutely no
fresh news. No one had come forward with any suggestion as to the
identity