r which he knows I read many weeks ago. And then see how that
message, instead of being concealed, was positively brought to your
notice! That man Broady Sims is a cunning rascal, and the police know
him of old as a skilful swindler and bill-forger. A man like that
doesn't get rid of a compromising scrap of paper by trundling it out
under your nose just at the moment he is arrested, when the attention of
everybody is directed to him; no, he would wait his opportunity, and
then he would probably slip it into his mouth and swallow it. As it is,
he would seem to have succeeded in dropping this paper full in your
sight, with an elaborate pretence of secrecy. Now this is what has been
done, Brett. That man has been sent to cash a cheque, with very little
hope of success, or none, because the first move that Mayes would
anticipate on our part would be the watching for him and his cheques at
the bank in Upper Holloway. If by any chance the cheques had been
cashed, well and good, no harm would have been done, and then Mayes
could have gone on to arrange for drawing the rest of his balance--could
probably have quite safely come himself to draw it. But if on the other
hand, as he fully anticipated, Sims was arrested, what then? Nothing was
lost but a penny cheque-form, and even Sims--though Mayes would care
nothing about that--could only be searched and then released, for the
cheque was perfectly genuine, and there was no charge against him. But
since he would certainly be searched, that cypher note was given him,
with instructions to make a conspicuous show of attempting to get rid of
it. Now that note was written in a cypher which Mayes knew was as plain
as print--to whom? To _me_. I am on his trail, and this note is
deliberately flung in my way, open as the day, but with every appearance
of secrecy. I am his dangerous enemy, and he knows it--as he told you,
in fact, yesterday. If he can clear me away, he can take breath and make
himself safe. The purpose of this note is to induce me to go, alone, to
this place on Channel Marsh to-night at twelve, in the hope of learning
where to find Mayes. There I am to be got rid of--murdered in some way,
for which preparation will be made. Mayes judges my character pretty
well. He knows that, in such circumstances as he represents, Sims being
kept away from his appointment, I should certainly go and take his
place, and use his password, to learn what I could. And, Brett, _that is
precisely wh