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"Yours, etc.,
"
THOMAS BERESFORD."
The Prime Minister looked up.
"
The enclosure?"
Mr. Carter smiled dryly.
"
In the vaults of the Bank. I am taking no chances."
"You don't think"--the Prime Minister hesitated a minute--"that it would be better
to open it now? Surely we ought to secure the document, that is, provided the
young man's guess turns out to be correct, at once. We can keep the fact of
having done so quite secret."
"
Can we? I'm not so sure. There are spies all round us. Once it's known I wouldn't
give that"--he snapped his fingers--"for the life of those two girls. No, the boy
trusted me, and I shan't let him down."
"Well, well, we must leave it at that, then. What's he like, this lad?"
"
Outwardly, he's an ordinary clean-limbed, rather block-headed young
Englishman. Slow in his mental processes. On the other hand, it's quite
impossible to lead him astray through his imagination. He hasn't got any--so he's
difficult to deceive. He worries things out slowly, and once he's got hold of
anything he doesn't let go. The little lady's quite different. More intuition and less
common sense. They make a pretty pair working together. Pace and stamina."
"
He seems confident," mused the Prime Minister.
"Yes, and that's what gives me hope. He's the kind of diffident youth who would
have to be VERY sure before he ventured an opinion at all."
A half smile came to the other's lips.
"
And it is this--boy who will defeat the master criminal of our time?"
This--boy, as you say! But I sometimes fancy I see a shadow behind."
"
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