at was his game. And I was not going to have anything to
do with it.

I went home to my bed resolved on that. I had heard of blackmailing, and
had a good notion of its wickedness--and of its danger--and I was not
taking shares with Crone in any venture of that sort. But there Crone
was, an actual, concrete fact that I had got to deal with, and to come to
some terms with, simply because he knew that I was in possession of
knowledge which, to be sure, I ought to have communicated to the police
at once. And I was awake much during the night, thinking matters over,
and by the time I rose in the morning I had come to a decision. I would
see Crone at once, and give him a sort of an ultimatum. Let him come,
there and then, with me to Mr. Murray, and let the two of us tell what we
knew and be done with it: if not, then I myself would go straight to Mr.
Lindsey and tell him.

I set out for the office earlier than usual that morning, and went round
by way of the back street at the bottom of which Crone's store stood
facing the river. I sometimes walked round that way of a morning, and I
knew that Crone was as a rule at his place very early, amongst his old
rubbish, or at his favourite game of gossiping with the fishermen that
had their boats drawn up there. But when I reached it, the shop was still
shut, and though I waited as long as I could, Crone did not come. I knew
where he lived, at the top end of the town, and I thought to meet him as
I walked up to Mr. Lindsey's; but I had seen nothing of him by the time I
reached our office door, so I laid the matter aside until noon, meaning
to get a word with him when I went home to my dinner. And though I could
have done so there and then, I determined not to say anything to Mr.
Lindsey until I had given Crone the chance of saying it with me--to him,
or to the police. I expected, of course, that Crone would fly into a rage
at my suggestion--if so, then I would tell him, straight out, that I
would just take my own way, and take it at once.

But before noon there was another development in this affair. In the
course of the morning Mr. Lindsey bade me go with him down to my
mother's house, where Mrs. Hanson had been lodged for the night--we
would go through Gilverthwaite's effects with her, he said, with a view
to doing what we could to put her in possession. It might--probably
would--be a lengthy and a difficult business that, he remarked, seeing
that there was so much that was dark a