remain a mystery for ever.  So far as they were concerned, he could look his aunt or anybody else in the face without a tremor.  The mere destruction of the immense, undetermined sum of money did not seriously ruffle him.  As an ex-bank clerk he was aware that though an individual would lose, the State, through the Bank of England, would correspondingly gain, and thus for the nonce he had the large sensation of a patriot.

II

Axon, the factotum of the counting-house, came in from the outer office, with a mien composed of mirth and apprehension in about equal parts.  If Axon happened to be a subject of a conversation and there was any uncertainty as to which Axon out of a thousand Axons he might be, the introducer of the subject would always say, “You know—­sandy-haired fellow.”  This described him—­hair, beard, moustache.  Sandy-haired men have no age until they are fifty-five, and Axon was not fifty-five.  He was a pigeon-flyer by choice, and a clerk in order that he might be a pigeon-flyer.  His fault was that, with no moral right whatever to do so, he would treat Louis Fores as a business equal in the office and as a social equal in the street.

He sprang upon Louis now as one grinning valet might spring upon another, enormous with news, and whispered—­

“I say, guv’nor’s put his foot through them steps from painting-shop and sprained his ankle.  Look out for ructions, eh?  Thank the Lord it’s a half-day!” and then whipped back to his own room.

On any ordinary Saturday morning Louis by a fine frigidity would have tried to show to the obtuse Axon that he resented such demeanour towards himself on the part of an Axon, assuming as it did that the art-director of the works was one of the servile crew that scuttled about in terror if the ferocious Horrocleave happened to sneeze.  But to-day the mere sudden information that Horrocleave was on the works gave him an unpleasant start and seriously impaired his presence of mind.  He had not been aware of Horrocleave’s arrival.  He had been expecting to hear Horrocleave’s step and voice, and the rustle of him hanging up his mackintosh outside (Horrocleave always wore a mackintosh instead of an overcoat), and all the general introductory sounds of his advent, before he finally came into the inner room.  But, now, for aught Louis knew, Horrocleave might already have been in the inner room, before Louis.  He was upset.  The enemy was not attacking him in the proper and usual way.

And the next instant, ere he could collect and reorganize his forces, he was paralysed by the footfall of Horrocleave, limping, and the bang of a door.

And Louis thought—­

“He’s in the outer office.  He’s only got to take his mackintosh off, and then I shall see his head coming through this door, and perhaps he’ll ask me for the petty-cash book right off.”

But Horrocleave did not even pause to remove his mackintosh.  In defiance of immemorial habit, being himself considerably excited and confused, he stalked straight in, half hopping, and sat down in his frowsy chair at his frowsy desk, with his cap at the back of his head.  He was a spare man, of medium height, with a thin, shrewd face and a constant look of hard, fierce determination.