“There is a negative missing!” he said sharply; “No one else could have meddled with it!”
“I don’t know anything about it,” the boy answered doggedly. “Perhaps it’s upstairs.”
Mr. Lawrence abandoned his search.
“If you’ll excuse me a moment, sir,” he said, “I’ll have a look among the old ones.”
I nodded and he closed the door and disappeared. Fenton would have gone, too, but I stopped him.
“Look here!” I said quickly; “see this?”
I held out a five-pound note.
He opened his eyes wide and looked at it longingly.
“Well, it’s yours if you’ll tell me what you’ve done with the negative of Mr. Hart’s photograph. Quick!”
He hesitated.