"When Lockwood was away from the office he deputized me to look after his mail, sign for the registered letters, re-direct telegrams, see that everything went through to the right point. It was quite a heavy mail. Carlton, I guess, was a man of importance, and besides that he was investing for friends at home. Looking after it, of course, was simple enough, but—"
"Wait!" I interrupted. "Has this mail anything to do with our blank wall?"
He looked about at me as though he had seen me for the first time, as though all that while he had been merely thinking aloud.
"Why that is the blank wall," he cried.
"How?" I demanded.
"Four weeks ago Lockwood came back from the West. On the same day a registered letter came to the office for young Carlton. That letter held twelve Bank of England notes for a hundred pounds each. About six thousand dollars altogether."
"Where did it come from?"
"From Montreal, from Carlton's own father. He wanted the money forwarded to his son. The older man was on his way back to England. The younger Carlton was looking up certain lands his father wanted to invest in. Young Carlton's movements were rather uncertain, so his father made sure by sending the letter to our office—to Lockwood's office."
"And you were still acting as poste restante for the Carlton out in British Columbia?"
"Yes, we'd been receiving and forwarding his mail."