“You’ll be sorry for it, Batchelor,” he said, in a significant way.
“Shall I?”
“You would not like my uncle and Mr Barnacle to be told of your early visits here without leave.”
“They are quite welcome to know it.”
“And of my catching you and Smith going into their private room.”
“Where we found you,” I replied, laughing, “busy at nobody knows what?”
He looked at me hard as I drew this bow at a venture, and then said, “You must know, Batchelor, that I have a right to sit in that room when I choose. And,” he added, dropping his voice to a whisper and looking at me in a most significant way—“and if the door happens to be open, and if you and Smith happen to talk secrets, there’s every chance of their being overheard!”
This was his trump card! If anything was to settle the question of my obeying him and taking Hodge and Company’s letter, this was to do it.
“Then you did hear what was said?” I asked.
“Yes, I did,” he said.