hich was simple prudence on
his part, for he had drawn a cheque for ten pounds on a non-existent
bank-balance. At last, as Mr. Gibbs had not arrived, he said he should
stroll up to the Majestic. He had not yet engaged a room; he seemed to
hesitate before that decisive act....

Then it was that, in the corridor immediately outside the lounge, he
encountered Jim Horrocleave. The look in Jim Horrocleave's ferocious
eye shocked him. Louis had almost forgotten his employer, and the
sudden spectacle of him was disconcerting.

"Hello, Fores!" said Horrocleave very sardonically, with no other
greeting. "I thought ye were too ill to move." No word of sympathy
in the matter of the accident! Simply the tone of an employer somehow
aggrieved!

"I'm out to-day for the first time. Had to come down here on a
matter--"

Horrocleave spoke lower, and even more sardonically. "I hear ye're off
to America."

Louis looked through the fretted partition at the figure of Krupp
alone in the lounge. And Horrocleave also looked at Krupp. And
Krupp looked back with his enigmatic gaze, perhaps scornful, perhaps
indifferent, perhaps secretly appreciative--but in any case profoundly
foreign and aloof and sinister.

"Well--" Louis began at a disadvantage. "Who says I'm off to America?"

Horrocleave advanced his chin and clenched a fist.

"Don't you go!" said he. "If ye did, ye might be brought back by
the scruff o' the neck. You mark my words and come down to the works
to-morrow morning--_to-morrow_, ye understand!" He was breathing
quickly. Then a malicious grin seemed to pass over his face as his
glance rested for an instant on Louis' plasters. The next instant he
walked away, and Louis heard him at the cloak-room counter barking the
one word, "Mackintosh."

Louis understood, only too completely. During his absence from the
works Horrocleave had amused himself by critically examining the old
petty-cash book. That was all, and it was enough. Good-bye to romance,
to adventure, to the freedom of the larger world! The one course to
pursue was to return home, to deny (as was easy) that the notion
of going to America had ever occurred to him, or even the notion of
putting up at the hotel, and with such dignity as he could assume to
restore to Horrocleave the total sum abstracted. With care and luck
he might yet save his reputation. It was impossible that Horrocleave
should prosecute. And what was seventy odd pounds, after all? He was
master of