"And the presence of your escort would announce to him or his spies, assuming that he is concerned in the robbery, that you have it with you?"
"Naturally; but the risk was more than the general manager would allow for me to travel with it unless I had police protection."
"You expect to pay it out this afternoon?"
"I anticipate Dudgeon will be at the bank clamouring for it, under threat of crying off the sale, by the time I get there. The first thing I shall most probably do is to pay it over."
"So that it will soon be out of the bank, and the bank's interest in it will have ceased."
"Exactly," Wallace replied. "Mr. Dudgeon, who refuses to act through the bank, will have the pleasure of providing his own strong-room for its safe keeping."
"Eustace would know that too?"
"Certainly."
"Then you will have to send one or both of those troopers with Mr. Dudgeon; otherwise he will be robbed to-night. It would certainly be the last thing necessary to identify Eustace with the robbery at the bank, but there is already enough to prove that, to my mind. Your duty ceases when you have handed this sum over, but there mine begins."
"I intend to suggest to Mr. Dudgeon the advisability of his having police protection while the gold is in his possession, in view of what has already occurred. But I am quite sure that the suggestion will be treated with contempt."