Neither of the men spoke much during the progress of the meal. The financier’s busy brain was at work upon his various schemes, and he had almost forgotten that conversation a few hours earlier with his wife concerning her brother-in-law and Archie Brookes.
Young Croxton was very preoccupied too. This was the day on which, fortified by the encouraging counsels of his sweetheart, he had resolved to screw up his courage and ask Morrice’s consent to his betrothal to Rosabelle.
The two men from time to time looked at their watches, and at last the elder rose with a quick, alert movement.
“It wants five minutes, Dick. Let us be going.” They went into Morrice’s study, a spacious room, solidly furnished. In a corner stood a big safe, from which, when the actual time arrived, they were going to take the packet of French notes and the loose diamonds. Two days previously they had shifted them to an easily accessible spot.
They stood before the formidable-looking receptacle, watches in hand, and then with a simultaneous exclamation of “Now!” from each, Morrice and his confidential secretary inserted their two separate keys. The heavy door swung back, the financier advanced his hand to the spot where the articles had been placed, and drew back with a cry of dismay.
The packet of French notes, the canvas bag containing the loose diamonds, had been removed from their hiding place, also a parcel of private papers containing important secrets.
CHAPTER III
RICHARD IS DISMISSED
For an instant the two men stared at each other in blank amazement as they stood in front of the big safe, the door of which had been unlocked with such startling results.
The elder man recovered himself first. His was a strong, resolute character, and it was always said of him by those who knew him intimately, that no man could grasp the bearings of an unexpected situation more readily. Croxton seemed dazed and stupefied beyond the power of speech.
“But they were there, all of them, when we shifted them the other morning, the packet of notes, the bag of diamonds, the parcel of papers. You saw them, we both saw them.”