nother
drawer and closed it again.

"Now look here, colonel," he said, "I haven't made so much money out of
this business as you have. Things are pretty bad with me, and I think
the least you can do is to give me something to remember you by."

The colonel did not answer. Apparently his thoughts were wandering.

"Tom," he said after awhile, "do you remember three months ago I bought
a lot of old cinema films?"

"Yes, I remember," said the man, surprised at the change of subject.
"What's that to do with it?"

"There were about ten boxes, weren't there?"

"A dozen, more likely," said the man impatiently. "Now look here,
colonel----"

"Wait a moment, Tom. I'll discuss your share when you've given me a
little help. Meeting you here--by the way, I saw you out of the window,
skulking on the other side of the street--has given me an idea. Where
did you put those films?"

The man grinned.

"Are you starting a cinema, colonel?"

"Something like that," replied Boundary; "it was the Salvation Army that
gave me the idea really. Do you hear what an infernal noise that drum
makes?"

The man made a gesture of impatience.

"What is it you want?" he asked. "If you want the films, I put them in
my pantry, underneath the silver cupboard. I suppose, now that the
partnership's broken up, you don't object to me taking the silver? I
might be starting a little house on my own."

"Certainly, certainly, you can take the silver," said the colonel
genially. "Bring me the films."

The man was half-way out of the room when he turned round.

"No tricks, mind you," he said, "no doing funny business when my back's
turned."

"I shall not move from the chair, Tom. You don't seem to trust me."

The ex-valet made two journeys before he deposited a dozen shallow tin
boxes on the desk.

"There they are," he said, "now tell me what's the game."

"First of all," said the colonel, "were you serious when you suggested
that you knew something about me that would be worth a lot to the
police? There goes that drum again, Tom. Do you know what use that drum
is to me?"

"I don't know," growled the man. "Of course I meant what I said--and
what's this stuff about the drum?"

"Why, the people in the street can hear nothing when that's going," said
the colonel softly.

He put his hand in the inside of his coat, as though searching for a
pocket-book, and so quick was he that the man, leaning over the table,
did not see the weapon that killed