I thought I could discover an anxious nervous twitching in his face, betraying an under current of guilty consciousness, and a fear that he had not escaped pursuit, as perhaps only a few minutes previously he was flattering himself he had.
I was standing a little in the rear of O’Leary, and thus was partially hidden from observation.
Stepping on one side, and extending his hand towards me, O’Leary said, “Allow me, Mr. Hooker, to introduce you to a gentleman from England, with whom I believe you are well acquainted.”
Making an effort to appear calm and unconscious of danger, the swindler deliberately disowned all knowledge of me.
Looking at me, and then turning to O’Leary, he replied, “I do not know the gentleman. He is a perfect stranger to me.”
I was unprepared for such a barefaced disavowal from a man with whom I had so often and so lately transacted business.
For a moment I felt staggered by this fresh evidence of guilt.
At length I stepped forward and said, “Mr. Hooker, you know the —— Bank, and you know me as the cashier of that establishment, and you know, too, perfectly well the nature of the business which has brought me to Canada in search of you.”
These words, uttered with all the menace and determination I could throw into them, had a marked and striking effect on the conscience-stricken man to whom they were addressed.
His courage instantly forsook him. He trembled as stricken with ague.