“Never made a joke in me life,” declared Payne, “and well you know it.”
Erb went over to the window and rested on the window sill.
“Spanswick?” he asked briefly.
“Him,” answered Payne, “and no other.”
“And they settled it all without hearing my account of the case?”
“Old chum! there didn’t seem to be no room for any other account. He’d got chapter and verse for everything he said. All about a twenty pound cheque, all about—”
“And it never occurred to this—this flock of sheep,” shouted Erb excitedly, “that I destroyed that cheque and never cashed it?”
“I don’t think they understand much about cheques,” said Payne. “The fact that you took it was what impressed them.”
Neither spoke for a few minutes.
“Who’s going to take my place?”