“Angrave,” he said, “Mr. Wilmore is not here.”
The clerk looked around in obvious surprise.
“It isn't five minutes since he came out to my office, sir!” he exclaimed. “I heard him go back again afterwards.”
Francis shrugged his shoulders.
“Perhaps he decided not to wait and you didn't hear him go by.”
Angrave shook his head.
“I do not see how he could have left the place without my hearing him, sir,” he declared. “The door of my office has been open all the time, and I sit opposite to it. Besides, on these stone floors one can hear any one so distinctly.”
“Then what,” Francis asked, “has become of him?”
The clerk shook his head.
“I haven't any idea, sir,” he confessed.