"Nothing of the sort!" answered Pratt scornfully. "Don't be a fool! You're all right. You listen to me. You write--straight off--to the Royal Atlantic. Tell 'em you had some inquiry made about a man named Parsons, who booked a passage with you for New York last November. Say that on looking up your books you found that you unaccountably forgot to send them the forms for him and his passage money. Make out a form for that date, and crumple it up--as if it had been left lying in a drawer. Enclose the money in it--here, I'll give you ten pounds to cover it," he went on, drawing a bank-note from his purse. "Get it off at once--you've time now--plenty--to catch the night-mail at the General. And then, d'ye see, you're all right. It's only a case then--as far as you're concerned--of forgetfulness. What's that?--we all forget something in business, now and then. They'll overlook that--when they get the money." "Aye, but you're forgetting something now!" remarked Murgatroyd. "You're forgetting this--no such passenger ever went! They'll know that by their passenger lists." "What the devil has that to do with it?" snarled Pratt impatiently. "What the devil do we care whether any such passenger went or not? All that you're concerned about is to prove that you issued a ticket to Parrawhite, under the name of Parsons. What's it matter to you where Parrawhite, _alias_ Parsons, went, when he'd once left your shop? You naturally thought he'd go straight to the Lancashire and Yorkshire Station, on his way to Liverpool and New York! But, for aught you know, he may have fallen down a drain pipe in the next street! Don't you see, man? There's nothing, there's nobody, not all the detectives in London and Barford, can prove that you didn't issue a ticket to Parrawhite on that date? It isn't up to you to prove that you did!--it's up to them to prove that you didn't! And--they can't. It's impossible. You get that letter off--at once--to Liverpool, with that money inside it, and you're as safe as houses--and your hundred pounds as well. Get it done! And if those chaps come asking any more questions, tell 'em you're not going to answer a single one! Mind you!--do what I tell you, and you're safe!"