Jump to content

Page:Conflict (1927).pdf/200

From Wikisource
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

pons very hastily. And though he did wait until a bank employee had shoved the long, narrow tin casket safely back into its steel pocket, he rushed off ten or fifteen minutes before Felix left the vault, with instructions to Felix to fill in the customary forms in ink, and deposit the coupons to his account in another bank, farther downtown. He had a rough copy of the coupons, which he had tucked into his waistcoat pocket along with his pencil. It occurred to Felix that Mr. Fairchild would as likely as not misplace the paper before morning.

But it did not occur to Felix to fail to deposit the coupons, immediately, and with scrupulous accuracy. But before depositing them something happened that made the blood pump hard around Felix's heart as he wove his way from one bank to the other through the midday crowds.

It was a rainy day, and raw for June. Felix had worn the light brown overcoat. When he and Mr. Fairchild had been shown into the little sealed room underneath the sidewalk, Felix had taken off his overcoat, and laid it across one end of the glasscovered table. He was alone in the little sealed room when he put on his overcoat.

As he slipped one hand into an open armhole, and swung the coat up on to his shoulder, something dropped on the floor. Something that had been lying on the table underneath the coat. A