arris. Let on to be anything you like, but be careful, and
don't talk much to anybody. When you arrive, take a room at the Hotel
St Petersbourg. You will receive a note or message there, addressed to
George Harris, telling you where to take the wallet I shall give you.
The wallet is locked, and you want to take good care of it. Have you got
that all clear?"

'I repeated the instructions. I asked if I should return from Paris
after handing over the wallet. "As soon as you like," he said. "And mind
this--whatever happens, don't communicate with me at any stage of the
journey. If you don't get the message in Paris at once, just wait
until you do--days, if necessary. But not a line of any sort to me.
Understand? Now get ready as quick as you can. I'll go with you in the
car a little way. Hurry."

'That is, as far as I can remember, the exact substance of what
Manderson said to me that night. I went to my room, changed into day
clothes, and hastily threw a few necessaries into a kit-bag. My mind
was in a whirl, not so much at the nature of the business as at the
suddenness of it. I think I remember telling you the last time we
met'-he turned to Trent--'that Manderson shared the national fondness
for doings things in a story-book style. Other things being equal, he
delighted in a bit of mystification and melodrama, and I told myself
that this was Manderson all over. I hurried downstairs with my bag and
rejoined him in the library. He handed me a stout leather letter-case,
about eight inches by six, fastened with a strap with a lock on it. I
could just squeeze it into my side-pocket. Then I went to get the car
from the garage behind the house.

'As I was bringing it round to the front a disconcerting thought struck
me. I remembered that I had only a few shillings in my pocket.

'For some time past I had been keeping myself very short of cash, and
for this reason--which I tell you because it is a vital point, as you
shall see in a minute. I was living temporarily on borrowed money. I had
always been careless about money while I was with Manderson, and being
a gregarious animal I had made many friends, some of them belonging to
a New York set that had little to do but get rid of the large incomes
given them by their parents. Still, I was very well paid, and I was
too busy even to attempt to go very far with them in that amusing
occupation. I was still well on the right side of the ledger until I
began, merely out of curiosit