"I guess I wanted to be quite sure it wouldn't fit," he replied at length. "If it doesn't, I could see if he has got a shorter one in another package."
Nevis flung out his arms in savage expostulation.
"Well," he cried, "I've never yet struck anybody quite as thick as you. Couldn't you have brought the shorter one along?"
"Those bolts," Bill answered solemnly, "don't run many to the dollar, and I'd a kind of notion I might find a big nut or some washers I could fill up with in the stables."
"No," snapped Nevis; "you have wasted time enough! If it won't do, take the thing back into the store and ask Bevan to cut the thread farther along it!"
Bill strolled away at a particularly leisurely gait, and Thorne took out his watch.
"It's highly probable that Slaney will have left Forrester's before our friend gets off," he said. "In that case, it will no doubt be noon to-morrow before the police make their first attempt to get on Winthrop's trail. I wonder whether anybody except Dave can have seen him."
"I did," Alison told him; "the morning before the hail."
Thorne turned toward her with a start.
"Where?"