Monckton raged at this, and, of course, said he had been bought by the other side. But now he was delighted that his enemies' secret had never been inquired into, and that he could fall on them both like a thunder-bolt.
He was at Hull next day, and rambled about the old shop, and looked in at the windows. All new faces, and on the door-plate, "Atkinson & Co."
Then he went in, and asked for Mr. Bartley.
Name not known.
"Why, he used to be here. I was in his employ."
No; nobody knew Mr. Bartley.
Could he see Mr. Atkinson?
Certainly. Mr. Atkinson would be there at two o'clock.
Monckton, after some preamble, asked whether he had not succeeded in this business to Mr. Robert Bartley.
No. He had bought the business from Mrs. Duplex, a widow residing in this town, and he happened to know that her husband had taken it from Whitaker, a merchant at Boston.