"So, when he comes back," said Lawrence, "he'll have a new bit of
information to add to his stock on hand, which must be a very peculiar
one, I fancy."
The cashier smiled. "Yes," she said, "and a very useful one, too, if
people only knew it."
"Don't they know it?" asked Lawrence. "Don't you have plenty of custom?"
At this moment the door opened, Mr Candy entered, and the conversation
stopped.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, sir," said the proprietor, passing some
money to the cashier over the curtain, who, thereupon, handed two
dollars and ninety-three cents to Lawrence through the little opening in
front.
"If you call the day after to-morrow, the information will be ready for
you," said Mr Candy, as the gentleman departed.
On the appointed day, Lawrence came again, and found nobody in the place
but the cashier, who handed him a note.
"Mr Candy left this for you, in case he should not be in when you
called," she said.
The note stated that the search for the address of Junius Keswick had
opened very encouragingly, but as it was quite evident that said person
was not now in the city, the investigations would have to be carried on
on a more extended scale, and a deposit of three dollars would be
necessary to meet expenses.
Lawrence looked from the note to the cashier, who had been watching him
as he read. "Does Mr Candy want me to leave three dollars with you?" he
asked.
"That's what he said, sir."
"Well," said Lawrence, "I don't care about paying for unlimited
investigation in this way. If the gentleman I am in search of has left
the city, and Mr Candy has been able to find out to what place he went,
he should have told me that, and I would have decided whether or not I
wanted him to do anything more."
The face of the cashier appeared troubled. "I think, sir," she said,
"that if you leave the money, Mr Candy will do all he can to discover
what you wish to know, and that it will not be very long before you have
the address of the person you are seeking."
"Do you really think he has any clew?" asked Lawrence.
This question did not seem to please the cashier, and she answered
gravely, though without any show of resentment: "That is a strange
question after I advised you to leave the money."
Lawrence had a kind heart, and it reproached him. "I beg your pardon,"
said he. "I will leave the money with you, but I desire that Mr Candy
will, in his next communication, give me all the information he has
acquired up to the moment of writing, and then I will decide whether it
is worth while to go on with the matter, or not."
He, thereupon, took out his pocket-book and handed three dollars to the
cashier, who, with an air of deliberate thoughtfulness, smoothed out the
two notes, and placed them in her drawer. Then she said: "If you will
leave your address, sir, I will see that you receive your information as
soon as possible. That will be better than for you to call, because I
can't tell you when to come."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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