"I didn't come here to play pool," Foster replied. "There was something I had to see about."
"Then I hope you found business pretty good," Telford remarked with a quiet smile that Foster found disturbing.
He thought the fellow would see him if he went to the clerk's office, and beckoning the bell-boy into a passage gave him a coin.
"Do you know if the lame gentleman with the dark hair is out?" he asked,
"He's certainly out. Left on the Montreal express this morning."
"You're quite sure of that?"
"Yep," said the lad. "I put his baggage in the transfer wagon for the depot."
Foster went to the rotunda and sat down to smoke. He felt savage, for there was no doubt that he had muddled things. Daly had again escaped him, but he thought he saw what Walters' visit meant. Three of the gang had met to make some plot, which might threaten Lawrence, whom they no doubt thought dangerous. It was ominous that Walters had gone east. Daly was obviously afraid of arrest, but the others seemed to think themselves safe and Telford was stopping at the hotel, although it looked as if he were being watched. Foster wondered whether the fellow suspected this.
Another matter demanded consideration. News of what he had done in Newcastle had probably reached the gang, and he had a check belonging to a member of it in his wallet. If they knew this, which was possible, he might be in some danger, and taking it for granted that the watcher was a detective or acting for Hulton, it would simplify things and free him from a grave responsibility if he told what he knew. For all that, he did not mean to do so. His object was to save his comrade's name.
In the afternoon he played pool with Telford, who carelessly asked him a few clever questions, which Foster answered with a misleading frankness that he hoped would put the other off the track. In the evening he read the newspapers and tried to overcome a growing anxiety about Lawrence. He ought to follow Daly, but did not know where he had gone, and thought that if he waited Telford might give him a clew.