* * * * *
Meanwhile Colin was seated in an exceedingly slow train on his way to the hospital where Sam the postman lay.
Afterwards he would go on to Glasgow, and thence hack to London by a line that did not pass near Dunford. In this he was simply obeying the instructions of Mr. Risk.
CHAPTER XVI
That nearly a fortnight should have passed without any effort on Symington’s part to “get a hold” of Kitty may seem to the reader to require some explanation. Possibly sufficient will be found in a conversation between Risk and Colin, which took place on the twelfth day after the latter’s call on the postmaster of Dunford. Colin had returned from Scotland, only to be dispatched, within a few hours, to an address in Amsterdam with a belt full of finely broken bottle glass next his skin, which he believed to be a fortune in uncut precious stones. Back from Holland he found written mstructions to proceed to Madrid to fetch a little box purporting to contain 3,000 sovereigns, and actually concealing about half a hundredweight of lead.
And now, a trifle fagged, he was sitting in Risk’s study, hoping to hear that he had done well. Risk did not keep him long in suspense. After a few questions respecting the last journey he said, rather abruptly—
“Well, Hayward, you’ve been serving me so far pretty much with your eyes shut: I wonder if you care to continue with your eyes open. I warn you that some of the work may be dull and most of it will be hard. I have got plenty of young men who work well in their own particular grooves, but I want one who is prepared to take on any job I put before him, just as I, with so many different interests, have had to do in the past for myself. I don’t expect you to learn everything at once, but I should expect you to be interested in everything that interests me. And I offer you £500 for the first year.”
Colin almost leapt from his seat. “£500, Mr. Risk! Why, I’ll never be worth that!”
“You’ll think differently six months hence. Meantime, do you accept?”
“Oh, rather!—and thank you a—”