n his handkerchief, said:

"But all the same, Marcus is held by the fact that he forms one of a
gang."

Voles made a movement with his hand.

"Don't interrupt me. The head of a shark is the cleverest part of it,
but it has to suffer with the body when the whole shark is caught;
that's the fix Marcus is in. When I close on the lot of you, Marcus
will be the first to go into the jug. Now, see here, you have got to
take my orders; they won't be hard."

"What are they?"

"You have got to write me a note, which I will take to Marcus, telling
him the game's up, the gang's burst, and to deliver."

"Why d--n it, what ails you?" said Voles.

"What ails me?"

"You aren't talking like yourself--you have never been like yourself
since you've taken this line."

Jones felt himself changing colour. In his excitement he had let his
voice run away with him.

"It doesn't matter a button whether I'm like myself or not," said he,
"you've got to write that note, and do it now while I dictate."

Voles drummed on the desk with his fingers, then he took a sheet of
paper and an envelope from a drawer.

"Well," said he, "what is it to be?"

"Nothing alarming," said the other. "Just three words. 'It's all
up'--how do you address him?"

Without reply Voles wrote.

"Dear M.

"It's all up."

"That'll do," said Jones, "now sign your name and address the envelope."

Voles did so.

Jones put the letter in his pocket.

"Well," said he, "that ends the business. I hope, with this, and what I
have to say to him, Marcus will part, and as I say, if things turn out
as I hope, maybe I'll right your losses--I have no quarrel with
you--only Marcus."

Suddenly Voles spoke.

"For God's sake," said he, "mind how you deal with that chap; he's never
been got the better of, curse him. Go cautiously."

"You never fear," said Jones.

CHAPTER XV

THE ATTACK (Continued)

Jones had already obtained Marcus Mulhausen's address from the
invaluable Kelly.

Mulhausen was a financier. A financier is a man who makes money without
a trade or profession, and Mulhausen had made a great deal of money,
despite this limitation, during his twenty years of business life, which
had started humbly enough behind the counter of a pawnbroker's in the
Minories.

His offices were situated in Chancery Lane. They consisted of three
rooms: an outer waiting room, a room inhabited by three clerks, that is
to say a senior clerk, Mr. Aaronso