without his noticing it. Thorpe evidently knew what he was about, and
did not intend to let the clerk bungle the matter.

He fancied, moreover, that the head cashier was watching him. He was
always meeting him in unexpected corners and places, and the cashier
never seemed to have an adequate excuse for being there. His movements
seemed suddenly of particular interest to others in the office as well,
for clerks were always being sent to ask him unnecessary questions,
and there was apparently a general design to keep him under a sort of
surveillance, so that he was never much alone with the Manager in the
private room where they worked. And once the cashier had even gone so
far as to suggest that he could take his holiday earlier than usual if
he liked, as the work had been very arduous of late and the heat
exceedingly trying.

He noticed, too, that he was sometimes followed by a certain individual
in the streets, a careless-looking sort of man, who never came face to
face with him, or actually ran into him, but who was always in his train
or omnibus, and whose eye he often caught observing him over the top of
his newspaper, and who on one occasion was even waiting at the door of
his lodgings when he came out to dine.

There were other indications too, of various sorts, that led him to
think something was at work to defeat his purpose, and that he must act
at once before these hostile forces could prevent.

And so the end came very swiftly, and was thoroughly approved by Thorpe.

It was towards the close of July, and one of the hottest days London had
ever known, for the City was like an oven, and the particles of dust