omnibus, and whose eye he often caught observing him over the top of
his newspaper, and who on one occasion was even waiting at the door of
his lodgings when he came out to dine.

There were other indications too, of various sorts, that led him to
think something was at work to defeat his purpose, and that he must act
at once before these hostile forces could prevent.

And so the end came very swiftly, and was thoroughly approved by Thorpe.

It was towards the close of July, and one of the hottest days London had
ever known, for the City was like an oven, and the particles of dust
seemed to burn the throats of the unfortunate toilers in street and
office. The portly Manager, who suffered cruelly owing to his size, came
down perspiring and gasping with the heat. He carried a light-coloured
umbrella to protect his head.

"He'll want something more than that, though!" Jones laughed quietly to
himself when he saw him enter.

The pistol was safely in his hip pocket, every one of its six chambers
loaded.

The Manager saw the smile on his face, and gave him a long steady look
as he sat down to his desk in the corner. A few minutes later he touched
the bell for the head cashier--a single ring--and then asked Jones to
fetch some papers from another safe in the room upstairs.

A deep inner trembling seized the secretary as he noticed these
precautions, for he saw that the hostile forces were at work against
him, and yet he felt he could delay no longer and must act that very
morning, interference or no interference. However, he went obediently up
in the lift to the next floor, and while fumbling with the combination
of the safe, known only to himself, the cashier, and the Manager, he
again heard Thorpe's horrid whisper just behind him:

"You must do it to-day! You must do it to-day!"

He came down again with the papers, and found the Manager alone. The
room was like a furnace, and a wave of dead heated air met him in the
face as he went in. The moment he passed the doorway he realised that he
had been the subject of conversation between the head cashier and his
enemy. They had been discussing him. Perhaps an inkling of his secret
had somehow got into their minds. They had been watching him for days
past. They had become suspicious.

Clearly, he must act now, or let the opportunity slip by perhaps for
ever. He heard Thorpe's voice in his ear, but this time it was no mere
whisper, but a plain human voice, speaking out lo