verick said encouragingly.

"I think," the man continued, "that Mr. Morrison--knowing, as I
well do, sir, the sort of gent he is--would be more likely to talk
common sense with me about this matter than you, sir."

"I'll imagine I'm Morrison, for the moment," Laverick said smiling,
"especially as I'm acting for him."

The man looked around the room. The door behind had been left ajar.
He stepped backward and closed it.

"You'll pardon the liberty, sir," he said, "but this is a serious
matter I'm going to speak about. I'll just tell you a little thing
and you can form your own conclusions. Last night we was open late
at the 'Black Post.' We keep open, sir, as you know, when you
gentlemen at the Stock Exchange are busy. About nine o'clock there
was a strange customer came in. He had two drinks and he sat as
though he were waiting. In about 'arf-an-hour another gent came in,
and they went into a corner together and seemed to be doing some sort
of business. Anyways, there was papers passed between them. I was
fairly busy about then, as there were one or two more customers in
the place, but I noticed these two talking together, and I noticed
the dark gentleman leave. The others went out a few minutes
afterwards, and the gent who had come first was alone in the place.
He sat in the corner and he had a pocket-book on the table before
him. I had a sort of casual glance at it when I brought him a drink,
and it seemed to me that it was full of bank-notes. He sat there
just like a man extra deep in thought. Just after eleven, in came
Mr. Morrison. I could see he was rare and put out, for he was white,
and shaking all over. 'Give me a drink, Jim,' he said,--'a big
brandy and soda, big as you make 'em."'

The man paused for a moment as though to collect himself. Laverick
was suddenly conscious of a strange thrill creeping through his
pulses.

"Go on," he said. "That was after he left me. Go on."

"He was quite close to the other gent, Mr. Morrison was," the waiter
continued, "but they didn't say nowt to each other. All of a sudden
I see Mr. Morrison set down his glass and stare at the other chap
as though he'd seen something that had given him a turn. I leaned
over the counter and had a look, too. There he sat--this tall,
fair chap who had been in the place so long--with his big
pocket-book on the table in front of him, and even from where I was
I could see that there was a great pile of bank-notes stic