slipping it down into a carefully prepared place between the
lining and the material of his coat. Of the others he commenced
to make a close and minute investigation. It was a curious fact,
however, that notwithstanding his recent searching examination,
he looked once more nervously around the saloon before he settled
down to his task. For some reason or other, there was not the
slightest doubt that for the present, at any rate, Mr. Hamilton
Fynes was exceedingly anxious to keep his own company. As he drew
nearer to his journey's end, indeed, his manner seemed to lose
something of that composure of which, during the earlier part of
the evening, he had certainly been possessed. Scarcely a minute
passed that he did not lean sideways from his seat and look up
and down the saloon. He sat like a man who is perpetually on the
qui vive. A furtive light shone in his eyes, he was manifestly
uncomfortable. Yet how could a man be safer from espionage than
he!

Rugby telephoned to Liverpool, and received very much the same
answer as Crewe. Euston followed suit.

"Who's this you're sending up tonight?" the station-master asked.
"Special's at Willington now, come through without a stop. Is
some one trying to make a record round the world?"

Liverpool was a little tired of answering questions, and more
than a little tired of this mysterious client. The station-master
at Euston, however, was a person to be treated with respect.

"His name is Mr. Hamilton Fynes, sir," was the reply. "That is
all we know about him. They have been ringing us up all down the