“This gentleman is your friend, sir?” the cashier asked, glancing towards him.
“He is my solicitor,” Laverick answered, “and is entirely in my confidence. If you have anything to tell me, I should like Mr. Bellamy also to hear.”
Bellamy, who was standing a little in the background, took his place by Laverick’s side. The cashier, who knew him by sight, bowed.
“Beside these two forged orders, sir,” he said, turning again to Laverick, “we have had a man who took a room in the hotel leave a small black bag here, which he insisted upon having deposited in our document safe. My assistant had accepted it and was actually locking it up when he noticed a faint sound inside which he could not understand. The bag was opened and found to contain an infernal machine which would have exploded in a quarter of an hour.”
Bellamy drew his breath sharply between his teeth.
“We should have thought of that!” he exclaimed softly. “That’s Kahn’s work!”
“I seem to have given you a great deal of trouble,” Laverick remarked quietly. “I gather, however, from what you say, that my packet is still in your possession?”
“It is, sir,” the man assented. “We have two detectives from Scotland Yard here at the present moment, though, and we had almost decided to place it in their charge for greater security.”
“It will be well taken care of from now, I promise you,” Laverick declared.
The cashier and his clerk led the way into the inner office. At their invitation Laverick and his solicitor followed, and a few yards behind came the two plain-clothes policemen, Bellamy, and the superintendent. The safe was opened and the packet placed in Laverick’s hands. He passed it on at once to Bellamy, and immediately afterwards the doorway behind was thronged with men, apparently ordinary loiterers around the hotel. They made a slow and exceedingly cautious exit. Once outside, Bellamy turned to Laverick with outstretched hand.