"I know you have brains, Tom," said the colonel, "but you can't use 'em." "Can't I, eh? I haven't been looking after you for four or five years and doing your dirty work, colonel, without picking up a little intelligence--and a little information! You'd look comic if they put me in the witness box!" He was gaining courage at the very mildness of the man of whom he once stood in terror. "So you've come for the pickings?" said the colonel, ignoring his threat. "Well, help yourself." He went to the sideboard, poured himself out a little whisky and sat down by the window to watch the man search. Tom pulled open another drawer and closed it again. "Now look here, colonel," he said, "I haven't made so much money out of this business as you have. Things are pretty bad with me, and I think the least you can do is to give me something to remember you by." The colonel did not answer. Apparently his thoughts were wandering. "Tom," he said after awhile, "do you remember three months ago I bought a lot of old cinema films?" "Yes, I remember," said the man, surprised at the change of subject. "What's that to do with it?" "There were about ten boxes, weren't there?" "A dozen, more likely," said the man impatiently. "Now look here, colonel----" "Wait a moment, Tom. I'll discuss your share when you've given me a little help. Meeting you here--by the way, I saw you out of the window, skulking on the other side of the street--has given me an idea. Where did you put those films?" The man grinned. "Are you starting a cinema, colonel?" "Something like that," replied Boundary; "it was the Salvation Army that gave me the idea really. Do you hear what an infernal noise that drum makes?" The man made a gesture of impatience. "What is it you want?" he asked. "If you want the films, I put them in my pantry, underneath the silver cupboard. I suppose, now that the partnership's broken up, you don't object to me taking the silver? I might be starting a little house on my own." "Certainly, certainly, you can take the silver," said the colonel genially. "Bring me the films." The man was half-way out of the room when he turned round. "No tricks, mind you," he said, "no doing funny business when my back's turned." "I shall not move from the chair, Tom. You don't seem to trust me." The ex-valet made two journeys before he deposited a dozen shallow tin boxes on the desk. "There they are," he said, "now tell me what's the game." "First of all," said the colonel, "were you serious when you suggested that you knew something about me that would be worth a lot to the police? There goes that drum again, Tom. Do you know what use that drum is to me?" "I don't know," growled the man. "Of course I meant what I said--and what's this stuff about the drum?" "Why, the people in the street can hear nothing when that's going," said the colonel softly.