Part 20 (2/2)

”Aweel,” said Pete, ”I'll feel mair sure o' the money in oot o' the toon It's ower full o' polls, and my talents are no' o'a street where Fosteruntil a trah the wet and smoky streets towards the city's western outskirts

XVII

THE LETTERS

The sky had cleared when Foster left the car at the end of the line and headed towards open country On the whole, he thought he was fortunate to get out of Newcastle safe, because there were grounds for believing that Graham had found out the trick If this were so, he would certainly try to recover the docue that the fellow had let him take them away; but, when one came to think of it, as soon as he had written and sealed the letters he was helpless

In order to keep them, he would have had to overpower Foster, for which he had not the physical strength, while any noise they ht in help Then supposing that Grahaained ot away It was, of course, absurd to think that Grahaht have killed hily given up the letters, but Foster felt he was not safe yet Heway that would prevent his assailants being traced It depended upon whether the documents orth the risk, and he would know this soon

In the ly industrial country Now and then the reflected glare of a furnace quivered in the sky; tall chimney-stacks and mounds of refuse showed faintly in the dark, and he passed clusters of fiercely burning lights and dull red fires He supposed they marked pithead banks and coke-ovens; but pushed on steadily towards the west He wanted to put some distance between himself and Newcastle before he stopped

After a ti nearer, he saw chimneys, dark skeleton towers of timber, and jets of steae, and when he passed the first laliness of the place The sot, the pavement was covered with black mud, and the air filled with acrid smoke Presently, however, he ca red brick and ornamented with sooty paint He wondered what accounted for its being planted there; but it offered shelter for the night and he went in

He admitted that he had slept in worse places than the rooh it looked far froood, and he afterwards entered a sht fire, near which he sat dohen Pete went away The strain he had borne had brought its reaction; he felt tired and slack

There was another rooe, and he s a harsh dialect and the tramp of heavy boots on boards The door was open and men with curiously pale faces that did not look clean passed now and then Foster thought they were colliers and he had nothing to fear from them

He had two or three companions, who sat round a s to a football committee The landlord treated them with some deference, as if they were io He wanted to exaht it safer to wait until he was alone, since inquiries th the footballers ay, and shutting the door, he turned his chair so that he could see anybody who ca round It was satisfactory to note that the table would be between hi the letters, he tried to recollect what had happened in Graham's office The fellow sat in front of a desk with a row of pigeon-holes and sides that prevented Foster's noting exactly what he did after he began to write In consequence, Foster could not tell if he had put anything except the letters in the envelopes, although he had taken some papers from the safe It looked as if Grahaether fro

Now he probably kneas an ih this was not quite certain Foster took out the envelopes, and broke the seal of the first, which was addressed to Daly, without hesitation

It contained a tourist agency's circular cheque for a moderate suland and Canada, and Foster saw the advantage of this, because, as the offices were numerous, one could not tell where the coupons would be cashed

Then he found a letter, which he thought bore out his conclusions, although, on the surface, it did not tell him much It stated that Jackson's business had been satisfactorily transacted in Berlin, but the Haed yet Lascelles had had sootiate a sale

Foster carefully folded the papers and replaced them in his pocket

The na, whose business was, no doubt, the sale of the stolen bonds He remembered Percival, the treasurer's, stateht be disposed of on a Continental bourse, and Hulton's reluctance to advertise their loss Well, he now had proof that Daly was, at least, a party to the theft, and ground for believing hie The felloas in his power

He, however, hesitated athe letter to Car her to some extent i but another envelope inside the first, which he threw into the fire The enclosed envelope was addressed to a ht Car it to her father, or so it open, he found a cheque on an American bank for a thousand dollars, but the payee's name was different frohted his pipe

Some of the bonds had obviously been sold and there were a nuh it was possible that they did not know all about the Hulton tragedy Foster understood that one could dispose of stolen securities through people ould undertake the dangerous business without asking aard questions, if the profit were high enough Still he thought Grahaer than his wish to save the ined that he was now in serious danger Graham's run to the telephone had alarrees the rooot quiet as its occupants went away It was some relief that the noise had stopped, but Foster liked to feel that there were people about He was tired and began to get drowsy as he lounged in front of the fire, but roused hiht to keep awake For all that, he did not hear the door open, and got up with a start as aat him with a sympathetic twinkle

”I ken what ye feel,” the latter re a keeper when ye hae a hare in the lining o' yere coat”

”Yes,” said Foster, ”I expect its so like that But where have you been?”

”Roon' the toon, though it's no' verra big or bonnie Then I stopped a bit in the bar o' the ither hotel Sixpence goes some way, if ye stick to beer”

”I hope you didn't say rinned ”I said a' I could; aboot the sheep and bullocks ere going to look at up Bellinghaers in the place but a coood order from the colliery Maybe that's worth the reed ”We'll have a reckoning at the end of the journey, but here's your sixpence” Then he looked at his watch ”Well, I think it's late enough to go to bed, and you can order breakfast We had better get off as soon as it's light”