“No such thing. He was kind enough to carry a message from you to me, and to convey back a return message from me to you. That has been his part in it.”
“You don’t suppose that I want to implicate him: do you?”
“I don’t think you want to implicate any one, but you are hot-headed and difficult to deal with, and very irrational into the bargain. And, what is worse, I must say you are a little suspicious. In all this matter I have harassed myself greatly to oblige you, and in return I have got more kicks than halfpence.”
“Did not you give this bill to Tozer—the bill which he now holds?”
“In the first place he does not hold it; and in the next place I did not give it to him. These things pass through scores of hands before they reach the man who makes the application for payment.”
“And who came to me the other day?”
“That, I take it, was Tom Tozer, a brother of our Tozer’s.”
“Then he holds the bill, for I saw it with him.”
“Wait a moment; that is very likely. I sent you word that you would have to pay for taking it up. Of course they don’t abandon those sort of things without some consideration.”
“Ten pounds, you said,” observed Mark.