you of
illicit dealing I kept an eye upon you and told Mr Norton here what I
thought."

"Cowardly, sneaking cur!" cried Anson, grinding his teeth.

"No, sir," cried the director sternly: "faithful servant of the
company."

"Where are your proofs that I am not?" cried Anson fiercely.

"Not found yet," said the officer; "but with all your cunning I daresay
we shall trace them."

"Go on," said Anson. "I'm ready for you."

The next minute the whole party were straggling through the camp-like
town towards the outskirts, to gather together at the very ordinary
shed-like house of mud wall and fluted corrugated-iron roofing, where
the wife of one of the men at the mine stared in wonder at the party,
and then looked in awe at her lodger, her eyes very wide open and
startled as she grasped what the visit meant.

"Oh, Mr Anson, what have you been a-doing of?" she cried, and burst
into tears.

West looked at the poor woman with a feeling of pity, and then felt
disposed to kick Anson for his brutality, for the clerk's gesture was
that of an ill-tempered cur: he literally snapped at her.

"Out of the way, you idiot!" he cried, "and let this police-constable
and his party come by."

West saw the directors exchange glances before following the
superintendent into the little house, leaving the two clerks to the
last, the police-constables remaining watchfully at the door.

"Master Anson is regularly cutting the ground from under him, Ingle,"
said West softly.

"Yes: the fool! I take it to be a tacit confession. You don't think
I've made a mistake now?"

West shook his head and looked distressed, but said nothing.

"Of course he'll never come back to us, and he knows it, or he'd never
put on this defiant manner. Hark at him!"

For at that moment the object of their thoughts shouted loudly: "Here,
you two spies, what are you waiting behind for? Come in and help search
the place."

West frowned and hung back, but Ingleborough laid a hand on his
shoulder.

"Come along," he said; "you must help me to see it through! It isn't
pleasant, but it's part of one's duty."

The next minute they were in Anson's combined bed and sitting room, a
very ordinary-looking place, with the simplest of furniture and plenty
of suggestions all round of spots where an ingenious man might have
hidden a little fortune in diamonds; for the mud walls were lined with
matchboard, the ceiling was of the same material, and then there was the