“I want you, sir, to do the right thing by Master Richard. I am sure, sir, begging your pardon for having to say such a thing, that he will not be too particular in the matter of looking into past accounts.”
But Mr. Bradfield’s not too sweet temper had been rising, and at these words he gave it vent.
“D——n your impudence!” roared he, glaring at the man with so much ferocity that even the calm Stelfox moved a step nearer to the foot of the bed. “Do you think I’m going to be mastered by you, or that escaped whelp? No. D——n you both for a couple of accomplices who want to rob me. You can go to the d——l both of you, and I’ll be d——d if either of you shall get a penny out of me. Get out of my sight, or I’ll have the landlord prosecuted for allowing you to come in!”
Rather to his surprise, Stelfox withdrew at once in exactly the same manner as if he had only come in to bring the gentleman’s shaving-water. Mr. Bradfield, breathing heavily from rage and excitement, got up, turned the key in the lock, and began to dress.
He was in a passion still, so indignant with Stelfox for refusing to be bribed that he quite felt that he was an injured person. He told himself, however, with a chuckle, when he had got a little cooler, that neither Stelfox nor anybody else could prevent his crossing to Flushing by the next boat, and getting out of jurisdiction before matters had got far enough for a warrant to be issued for him. At the same time there was just a little undercurrent of anxiety in his mind, the result of the extreme promptitude with which the cunning Stelfox had traced him out, and the astuteness with which he had framed an excuse to induce the attendants at the hotel to show him up to the room of the gentleman he asked for.
“But how on earth did he get in?” Mr. Bradfield asked himself, remembering that he had locked his door before going to bed. On examination, however, the lock proved to have been defective, so that Stelfox had found his entry easy.
By this time Mr. Bradfield was fully dressed, and he turned to the head of the bed where, under the damask curtain, he had hidden his precious bag of securities on the previous night.
The bag was no longer there.