“More trouble about that girl! Why can’t you leave them alone? Mark my words, you’ll come a cropper over them before you are done. But there, what’s the use of talking, the pairing season is death to common-sense.”
“But where has she gone, Sam? Where shall I find her?”
“That depends on who has done the job. He may be a tradesman, in which case you may as well say ‘good-bye’; or only a botch of an amateur, in which event you have a very good show. Advertise in this evening’s paper for the cabman. Offer ten pounds reward and no questions asked, and you will probably get an answer.”
“But suppose the man has been squared, is it likely he will give himself for a sum like that?”
“That depends, as I said at first, who put up the job. Let us suppose it was a mug’s plant. He would probably give the cabby a fiver for the night’s work, and he is not the average cabman if he would not tell where he drove to for a tenner, particularly if you undertake to ask nothing else, and keep the cops out of the affair.”
Alec jumped at the suggestion at once, and he was just in time to get the following notice in the second edition of the Evening Times—
TEN POUNDS REWARD.—If the cabman who drove a lady and gentleman from the Golden Bar last evening will call on Alexander Booth, King Street, he will receive the above. No foolish questions asked.
Alec went to his office and waited there impatiently for further developments. About six o’clock a seedy-looking man sidled into the office and asked for Mr. Booth. He was shown into the inner room, and Alec, at the first glance, felt that something was coming.
“Are you the cove wot advertised?”
“That’s me,” said Alec. “Are you the cabman I want?”