“Don't worry, Mr. Blitzer,” smiled Bascoigne suavely, “for no one's going to play you any tricks. You shall have that £1000, or at any rate, part of it, if you can convince us you've not been talking to any one about that little job we employed you to do.”
“I haven't been talking anywhere,” protested the man hotly. “I've not told anything, even to my mate who's looking after me. I've just promised him a quid to hold a letter for me until I come out. That's all.”
“Well, why are you now demanding an exorbitant sum for work you didn't even do?” asked Bascoigne sternly. “We paid you £50 for taking that lime to the reservoir, and——”
“Lime, be damned!” sneered the man contemptuously. “It was white arsenic, every bit of it, for my dog licked my hand when I got home, and was sick for a week. Th
