A shabby-looking clerk in the outer office announced the fact that Mr. Fowler was not engaged. Without waiting for any reply Wilfrid crossed to the inner office and opened the door. Surely enough, seated at a desk, was the little man with whom Cotter had been talking so earnestly a few minutes before.
"My name is Dr. Mercer," Wilfrid said bluntly. "You are Mr. Fowler, I understand. I came to see you in regard to a security which I gave to a firm called Darton & Co. for one hundred and seventy-five pounds. This security will fall due to-morrow and I am anxious to get it renewed."
The man shrugged his shoulders and took up his pen.
"My dear sir, I am very busy this morning," he said. "If you cannot meet the security, why, there is an end of it. I am sorry, but business is business, and of course you know the consequences if the bill is not taken up to-morrow."
"I am aware of that," Wilfrid said impatiently. "But what I want to know is, where do you come in? What connexion have you with Darton & Co.? And why should they turn over my liability to you? These are simple questions."
They were simple but Mr. Fowler had some difficulty in answering them. He changed colour slightly and his dingy hands fingered a bell on the table before him.
"Oh, you needn't be afraid," Wilfrid said contemptuously. "I am not going to do you any harm, but I came here for certain information and I mean to have it. Is my credit so good that you could afford to speculate in a bill of mine? But perhaps I had better come to the point. Where is the security?"
Mr. Fowler laughed somewhat unpleasantly. He was more at his ease. He pointed over his shoulder to a safe in the wall.
"The security is all right, sir," he said. "The point is, do you want to take it up? If you have the money with you the thing could be arranged quite amicably."
There was a sneer underlying these words which brought the blood into Wilfrid's face. The man was laughing at him. Here was a chance to test the truth of what Fowler was saying. Wilfrid took a bulky packet of letters from his pocket and laid them on the table before him.