his seat.

GILMAN. [Taking the client's chair, to the left of the table] Mr
Twisden, I believe? My name's Gilman, head of Gilman's Department
Stores. You have my card.

TWISDEN. [Looking at the card] Yes. What can we do for you?

GILMAN. Well, I've come to you from a sense of duty, sir, and also a
feelin' of embarrassment. [He takes from his breast pocket an evening
paper] You see, I've been followin' this Dancy case--it's a good deal
talked of in Putney--and I read this at half-past two this afternoon. To
be precise, at 2.25. [He rises and hands the paper to TWISDEN, and with
a thick gloved forefinger indicates a passage] When I read these numbers,
I 'appened to remember givin' change for a fifty-pound note--don't often
'ave one in, you know--so I went to the cash-box out of curiosity, to see
that I 'adn't got it. Well, I 'ad; and here it is. [He draws out from
his breast pocket and lays before TWISDEN a fifty-pound banknote] It was
brought in to change by a customer of mine three days ago, and he got
value for it. Now, that's a stolen note, it seems, and you'd like to
know what I did. Mind you, that customer of mine I've known 'im--well--
eight or nine years; an Italian he is--wine salesman, and so far's I
know, a respectable man-foreign-lookin', but nothin' more. Now, this was
at 'alf-past two, and I was at my head branch at Putney, where I live.
I want you to mark the time, so as you'll see I 'aven't wasted a minute.
I took a cab and I drove straight to my customer's private residence in
Putney, where he lives with his daughter--Ricardos his name is, Paolio
Ricardos. They tell me there that he's at his business shop in the City.
So off I go in the cab again, and there I find him. Well, sir, I showed
this paper to him and I produced the note. "Here," I said, "you brought
this to me and you got value for it." Well, that man was taken aback.
If I'm a judge, Mr Twisden, he was taken aback, not to speak in a guilty
way, but he was, as you might say, flummoxed. "Now," I said to him,
"where did you get it--that's the point?" He took his time to answer,
and then he said: "Well, Mr Gilman," he said, "you know me; I am an
honourable man. I can't tell you offhand, but I am above the board."
He's foreign, you know, in his expressions. "Yes," I said, "that's all
very well," I said, "but here I've got a stolen note and you've got the
value for it. Now I tell you," I said, "what I'm going to do; I'm going