w Zealand had been the post-boy who accompanied Mr
Soames when the cheque was lost; and the waiter had professed to know
nothing about Mr. Soames or the cheque. He now perceived at once that
the gist of the question had remained on the old man's mind, and that
he was recognised as being in some way connected with the lost money.

"Did I? Ah, yes; I think I did. And I think you told me that he was
the man?"

"No, sir; I never told you that."

"Then you told me that he wasn't."

"Nor I didn't tell you that neither," said the waiter angrily.

"Then what the devil did you tell me?" To this further question the
waiter sulkily declined to give any answer, and soon afterwards left
the room. Toogood, as soon as he had done his breakfast, rang the
bell, and the same man appeared. "Will you tell Mr. Stringer that I
should be glad to see him if he's disengaged," said Mr. Toogood. "I
know he's bad with the gout, and therefore if he'll allow me, I'll
go to him instead of his coming to me." Mr. Stringer was the landlord
of the inn. The waiter hesitated a moment, and then declared that
to the best of his belief his master was not down. He would go and
see. Toogood, however, would not wait for that; but rising quickly
and passing the waiter, crossed the hall from the coffee-room, and
entered what was called the bar. The bar was a small room connected
with the hall by a large open window, at which orders for rooms were
given and cash was paid, and glasses of beer were consumed,--and a
good deal of miscellaneous conversation was carried on. The barmaid
was here at the window, and there was also, in a corner of the room,
a man at a desk with a red nose. Toogood knew that the man at the
desk with the red nose was Mr. Stringer's clerk. So much he had
learned in his former rummaging about the inn. And he also remembered
at this moment that he had observed the man with the red nose
standing under a narrow archway in the close as he was coming out of
the deanery, on the occasion of his visit to Mr. Harding. It had not
occurred to him then that the man with the red nose was watching him,
but it did occur to him now that the man with the red nose had been
there, under the arch, with the express purpose of watching him on
that occasion. Mr. Toogood passed quickly through the bar into an
inner parlour, in which was sitting Mr. Stringer, the landlord,
propped among his cushions. Toogood, as he entered the hotel, had
seen Mr. Stringer so place