"I was sent down to Birmingham a day or two before it became due, and I left the money with a man I knew--Smith. I didn't hear anything, but I never doubted its being all right till I got back and found that he had bolted and that the money had never been paid. From that day to this I haven't heard a word of him. I dare say you don't believe me." "But I do," said Ibbetson impatiently. "My dear fellow, for pity's sake, pluck up a little spirit! Why shouldn't I believe you?" "Nobody does, that's all." "Well, we'll make them. Now, why don't you trace this man?" "I can't." "How have you tried?" "I went to his lodgings of course, and made no end of a row. There they said that he went out one day--the day after I left, it must have been-- with a bag, and has never come back. I've been there again and again and never got anything new. Then, you see, I can't afford detectives and all that sort of thing--" "They'll soon get hold of him," said Ibbetson, looking at his watch. "No, they won't, for Oliver Trent was awfully good, and undertook to set them to work." "And paid the money for you besides?" "The fifty pounds? Yes. I owe it to him, and if you'd let me go, I'd have paid it back one of these days." "Then I can't see why you shouldn't have stopped on and worked steadily. I don't suppose he'd have pressed you." "I would, if I'd only thought he believed me. But he didn't, not a bit more than the rest of them. It takes all the spirit out of a fellow. And now, they'll taunt me about this--I tell you, Mr Ibbetson, it's no use. I can't face it all again." "Nonsense," said Jack sharply. "Don't let your troubles drive you into being a coward. It seems to me, though I don't pretend to preach, that there are one or two things you might have remembered, Masters, which would have tided you over. Not face it? Face it, and clear it up." "That's very fine to say," groaned Clive. "Well, we'll see. It's time now to be off. And remember as to this affair, if you keep your own counsel, nobody but Davis need know anything about it. It's a pity you haven't made more of a friend of old Davis."