whispered sadly. "I did truly do it t' oblige."
"We know, Sammy," said the big man, winking again ponderously, "that 's a byblow! That 's a come-by-chance! You shan't suffer for it, only if we find that widow …"
****
Mr. Montague was reassured and smiled that smile, and the inferior policeman grinned also an honest grin. He was there to learn the tricks of the trade, and he only half understood them.
"Look here, Samuel," said the big man, turning round suddenly and squarely, "we 're not after that, you know! We 're not after a general rummage either this time." (He carefully folded, tied up and pocketed the bank-notes as he spoke, taking their numbers one by one with a pencil upon his pocket-book.) "We 're after something pertickler. Now you 'll know if anyone does, and no harm 'll come to you, Samuel, so think! Ye 've heard o' Mr. Brassington?"
Mr. Montague was about to shake his head, when he suddenly remembered that everyone in Ormeston knew Mr. Brassington and instead of shaking his head he nodded it—abstractedly. All his narrow, keen mind was full of the name
