The Borough Treasurer

queer, vague amazement about Kitely himself. He began to look back on his relations with Kitely. They were recent-very recent, only of yesterday, as you might say. Kitely had come to him,

n his landlord satisfactory references as to his ability to pay the rent-and Cotherstone, always a busy man, had thought no more about him. Certainly he had never ant

erstone then, of course. He remembered what their real names were-he remembered, too, that, until a few minutes before, he had certainly not repeated them, even to himself, for many a long year. Oh, yes-he remembered everything-he saw it all again. The case had excited plenty of attention in Wilchester at the time-Wilchester, that for thirty years had been so far away in thought and in actual distance that it might have been some place in the Antipodes. It was not a ni

e of its contents into his glass-the rim of the glass tinkled against the neck of the decanter. Yes-that had been a shock, right enough, he muttered to himself, and not all the whisky in

rstone's essentially constructive mind, regarding their doings from the vantage ground of thirty years' difference, acknowledged that they had been cute, crafty, and cautious to an admirable degree of perfection. Quietly and unobtrusively they had completely disappeared from their own district in the extreme South of England, when their punishment was over. They had let it get abroad that they were going to another continent, to retrieve the past and start a new life; it was even known that they repaired to Liverpool, to take ship for America. But in Liverpool they had shuffled off everything of the past

ular care, lest they should meet any one there who had known them in the old days. They had stopped at home, and minded their business, year in and year out. Naturally, they had prospered. They had speedily become known as hard-working young men; then as good employers of labour; finally as men of considerable standing in a town of which there were only some five thousand inhabitants. They had been invited to join in public matters-Mallalieu had gone into the Town Council first; Cotherstone had followed him later. They had be

that she was well educated; he had even allowed himself to be deprived of her company for two years while she went to an expensive school, far away; since she had grown up, he had surrounded her with every comfort. And now, as Kitely had reminded him, she was engaged to be married to the most promising young man in Highmarket, Windle Bent, a rich manufacturer, who had succeeded to and greatly developed a fine business, who had already made his mark on

no movement towards the gas bracket. Nothing mattered but his trouble. That must be dealt with. At all costs, Kitely's silence m

nd he sprang up and seized a box of matches as he bade the person without to enter

pped off into a nod over this warm

these three contracts to go through," answered the clerk.

put the decanter and the glasses aside, and took the letters. "I'll sign these, anyhow," he

tone with a surmising look. Stoner had noticed his employer's thoughtful attitude, the gloom in which Cotherstone sat, the decanter on the table, the glass in Cotherstone's hand, and he knew that Cotherstone was telling a fib when he said he had been asleep. He noticed, too, the six s

ing now, I suppose. Put those in the post. I'm not going just yet, so I'll

at done he fell to walking up and down, awaiting his partner. And presentl

re?" he said as he e

glancing past Mallalieu's broad shoulder at a mirror, saw that he himself had become startlingly pa

" demanded Mallal

The clerk had gone, and the place was only half-lighted. But Cotherstone closed the d

he said. "Ba

ed Mallalieu. "Pr

lips almost close

nant," he whispered. "He's

paled, and he turned s

xclaimed. "Him

got his lips

nswered. "Thirty y

face, full of colour from the keen air outside, became as pale as his partne

d hoarsely. "You-

e. "He knows everything. He's an e

n?" asked Malla

accident. Recognized us-after he came her

d himself out of his chair, found a clean glass, and took a stiff drink

our came back to his cheeks. "A real facer! As you say-after thirty years!

ith a mirthless laugh. "What else should he do? What could

thing is here," int

reliance to be placed on him then? It 'ud

one, thoughtfully. "And he added signif

demanded

on that he could be squared, could be satisfied. He'll have to be! We

of is if we really can silence him. I've heard of cases where a man's pa

herstone. "We'd better see him-together. After all, a hundred

his whisky and pus

n sure is that he'll have to be quietened. I mu

l these papers to go through. Well, thin

y, went off without a word of farewell,