might almost say
danger. You and I both know that there are weapons in this place which
can be made use of by persons wholly without scruples, which are
scarcely available at home. I want you to keep your eyes open. I have
very few friends here whom I can wholly trust. It is my purpose to call
in here every morning at ten o'clock for my letters, and if I fail to
arrive within half-an-hour of that time without having given you verbal
notice, something will have happened to me. You understand what I mean?"

"You mean that you are threatened with assassination?" the manager asked
gravely.

"Practically it amounts to that," Hunterleys admitted. "I received a
warning letter this morning. There is a very important matter on foot
here, Mr. Harrison, a matter so important that to bring it to a
successful conclusion I fancy that those who are engaged in it would not
hesitate to face any risk. I have wired to England for help. If anything
happens that it comes too late, I want you, when you find that I have
disappeared, even if my disappearance is only a temporary matter, to let
them know in London--you know how--at once."

The manager nodded.

"I will do so," he promised. "I trust, however," he went on, "that you
are exaggerating the danger. Mr. Billson lived here for many years
without any trouble."

Hunterleys smiled slightly.

"I am not a Secret Service man," he explained. "Billson's successor
lives here now, of course, and is working with me, under the usual guise
of newspaper correspondent. I don't think that he will come to any harm.
But I am here in a somewhat different position, and my negotiations in
the east, during the last few weeks, have made me exceedingly unpopular
with some very powerful people. However, it is only an outside chance,
of course, that I wish to guard against. I rely upon you, if I should
fail to come to the bank any one morning without giving you notice, to
do as I have asked."

Hunterleys left the bank and walked out once more into the sunlight. He
first of all made his way down to the Post Office, where he rapidly
dispatched several cablegrams which he had coded and written out in Mr.
Harrison's private office. Afterwards he went on to the Terrace, and
finding a retired seat at the further end, sat down. Then he drew the
forged order once more from his pocket. Word by word, line by line, he
studied it, and the more he studied it, the more hopeless the whole
thing seemed. The handwriting