answer them, if you like, before you go out. I always
call this," he added, with a smile, "the one inviolable sanctuary of
Monte Carlo."

"You are very kind," Hunterleys replied. "Are you sure that I am not
detaining you?"

"Not in the least. Personally, I am not at all busy. Three-quarters of
our business, you see, is merely a matter of routine. I was just going
to shut myself up here and read the _Times_. Have a cigarette? Here's an
envelope opener and a waste-paper basket. Make yourself comfortable."

Hunterleys glanced through his correspondence, rapidly reading and
destroying the greater portion of it. He came at last to two parchment
envelopes marked "On His Majesty's Service." These he opened and read
their contents slowly and with great care. When he had finished, he
produced a pair of scissors from his waistcoat pocket and cut the
letters into minute fragments. He drew a little sigh of relief when at
last their final destruction was assured, and rose shortly afterwards to
his feet.

"I shall have to go on to the telegraph office," he said, "to send these
few messages. Thank you very much, Mr. Harrison, for your kindness. If
you do not mind, I should like to take this forged order away with me."

The manager hesitated.

"I am not sure that I ought to part with it," he observed doubtfully.

"Could you recognise the person who presented it--you or your clerk?"

The manager shook his head.

"Not a chance," he replied. "It was brought in, unfortunately, before I
arrived. Young Parsons, who was the only one in the bank, explained that
letters were never delivered to an order, and turned away to attend to
some one else who was in a hurry. He simply remembers that it was a man,
and that is all."

"Then the document is useless to you," Hunterleys pointed out. "You
could never do anything in the matter without evidence of
identification, and that being so, if you don't mind I should like to
have it."

Mr. Harrison yielded it up.

"As you wish," he agreed. "It is interesting, if only as a curiosity.
The imitation of your signature is almost perfect."

Hunterleys took up his hat. Then for a moment, with his hand upon the
door, he hesitated.

"Mr. Harrison," he said, "I am engaged just now, as you have doubtless
surmised, in certain investigations on behalf of the usual third party
whom we need not name. Those investigations have reached a pitch which
might possibly lead me into a position of some--well, I