By which it will be seen that Mr. Simmons, though perhaps not a high authority on morals, had certain well-defined ethics of his own. It was not stealing to abstract a cigar from the store of a master who did not resort to the discreditable meanness of putting out a dozen in a box at a time so that he would easily miss one; it was not wrong to help yourself as often as you could to a glass of good wine; it was not against the moral code to listen outside doors, or to read letters and papers to which you could procure easy access through your employer’s carelessness. But in some matters the valet was a purist, more, it is to be feared, from terror of the legal consequences than from the revolt of a tender conscience. He did draw the line at picking locks or steaming open a letter. Growing quite daring in his comfortable belief that they were engaged in a comparatively innocent operation, he pulled the drawer open with his own hands and pointed to the pale-coloured little book which contained the paying-in slips. “There it is; goes back for two months. Is that enough for you? I hope so, for I don’t know where he puts the old ones; locks them up in his safe, I expect.” Lane intimated it would be quite sufficient for his purposes, and got to work at once. He took careful notice of the exact position of the little book which was lying at a slight angle on the top of a pile of papers, so that he could replace it in the same position. Sir George, careless as he appeared to be in some matters, might have a good memory in certain things, and might notice on his return that the contents of the drawer had been disturbed. Still, that did not matter very much if he did suspect; his suspicions would naturally fall upon Simmons as the guilty party, and, truth to tell, the detective was not very much concerned about that individual. He had proved a useful and adaptable instrument, but Lane could not help despising him for a smooth-faced hypocrite and venal rogue. It cannot be said that he enjoyed the situation very much himself. He had taken this course because he could think of no other which would serve his ends, and one has often to resort to dirty means in a good cause. But even if Sir George was the scoundrel he was beginning to believe him to be, the action he was now taking savoured just a little too much of hitting below the belt to square with his stolid English notions of fair play. If it had been possible he would have preferred to come out more in the open. Still, all is fair in war; he had comforted himself with that reflection many times in the course of his active career. It was not a very long task, for there seemed to be but few payments, and those mostly for small sums. The name of Willis occurred frequently in the margin of the counterfoils, evidently this was the person who had paid the amounts to Sir George.