that young Mr. Barter is a
gentleman who goes about in rather a large way, and noisy way, sir. He's
a biggish man, as it is, and to look at him at first you'd fancy that he
was bigger than he is. He talks very loud and cheery, sir, and he bangs
things about a good deal.'

'Well?' said Bommaney, irritated by these slow preliminaries, 'what
about it all?'

He could see that his late clerk was leading to a point of some sort,
and listened with a growing impatience.

'He was leaving his rooms that night, sir,' said Hornett, 'as sly as a
cat. I was just on the ground-floor of Number One as he was locking
the door behind him. Locking it, don't you see, sir,' said Hornett,
beginning to be fired by his imagination, and speaking eagerly, 'so as
not to make a noise in pulling it to behind him. I suppose I made some
sort of a noise in going behind him, but any way, he looked up at me--I
can see him now!' he cried, with a swift conviction, 'as if he was here
at this very minute, white and cowardly. That's what he was, sir. White
and cowardly, I can see him now.'

Bommaney grasped him by the wrist.

'Do you remember the time?' he asked, passing one hand confusedly
through the tumbled and disgraceful old locks of his hair. 'Do you
remember when I left the office? Do you remember when you left it?'

'Almost directly, sir, after you. But you drove, sir, and I walked. I
stopped, and had a little conversation with a friend, and just a social
glass that might have kept me back five minutes, sir. I was going to
dine with Mr. Marshall (White and Fielding's Mr. Marshall, sir) before
the theatre.'

Bommaney released his wrist, and dropping on his knees before the fire
again, warmed his hands absently and stared into the blaze.

'The notes were all hundreds, James,' he said, after a pause. 'They
were stopped at the Bank, I know, because I saw the advertisement. It
wouldn't be easy to get rid of them.'

'There are ways and means, sir,' said Hornett. 'They'd have to be
disposed of at a loss, of course--a heavy loss--and kept quiet for a
considerable time.'

'Have you heard of any of them coming into circulation?' asked Bommaney.

'I haven't been in the way to hear of anything, sir,' the clerk answered
mournfully, 'but,' with a sidelong look at his old employer, 'if I could
only get to look a bit respectable, I could make inquiries in an hour. I
have no doubt I could find out, sir.'

'My boy believes I'm guilty, like the rest,' sai