There was no other way. Jarvice knew well that
he could weaken Garratt Skinner’s influence
over Walter Hine by revealing to the youth certain
episodes in the new friend’s life. He might
even break the acquaintanceship altogether. But
Garratt Skinner would surely discover who had been
at work. And then? Why, then, Mr. Jarvice
would have upon his heels a shrewd and watchful enemy;
and in this particular business, such an enemy Mr.
Jarvice could not afford to have. Jarvice was
not an impressionable man, but his hands grew cold
while he imagined Garratt Skinner watching the development
of his little scheme—the tour abroad with
the pleasant companion, the things which were to happen
on the tour—watching and waiting until
the fitting moment had come, when all was over, for
him to step in and demand the price of his silence
and hold Mr. Jarvice in the hollow of his hand for
all his life. No, that would never do. Garratt
Skinner must be a partner so that also he might be
an accessory.
Accordingly, Jarvice wrote his letter to Garratt Skinner,
a few lines urging him to come to London on most important
business. Never was there a letter more innocent
in its appearance than that which Jarvice wrote in
his inner office on that summer afternoon. Yet
even at the last he hesitated whether he should seal
it up or no. The sun went down, shadows touched
with long cool fingers the burning streets; shadows
entered into that little inner office of Mr. Jarvice.
But still he sat undecided at his desk.
The tour upon the Continent must be abandoned, and
with it the journey under canvas to the near East—a
scheme so simple, so sure, so safe. Still Garratt
Skinner might confidently be left to devise another.
And he had always kept faith. To that comforting
thought Mr. Jarvice clung. He sealed up his letter
in the end, and stood for a moment or two with the
darkness deepening about him. Then he rang for
his clerk and bade him post it, but the voice he used
was one which the clerk did not know, so that he pushed
his head forward and peered through the shadows to
make sure that it was his master who spoke.
Two days afterward Garratt Skinner paid a long visit
to Mr. Jarvice, and that some agreement was reached
between the two men shortly became evident. For
Walter Hine received a letter from Captain Barstow
which greatly relieved him.
“Garratt Skinner has written to me,” wrote
the ‘red-hot’ Captain, “that he
has discovered that the gardener, whom he engaged for
a particular job, is notorious as a poacher and a
first-class shot. Under these circumstances,
my dear old fellow, the red-hot one cannot pouch your
pennies. As between gentlemen, the bet must be
considered o-p-h.”
