There was no other way.  Jarvice knew well that he could weaken Garratt Skinner’s influence over Walter Hine by revealing to the youth certain episodes in the new friend’s life.  He might even break the acquaintanceship altogether.  But Garratt Skinner would surely discover who had been at work.  And then?  Why, then, Mr. Jarvice would have upon his heels a shrewd and watchful enemy; and in this particular business, such an enemy Mr. Jarvice could not afford to have.  Jarvice was not an impressionable man, but his hands grew cold while he imagined Garratt Skinner watching the development of his little scheme—­the tour abroad with the pleasant companion, the things which were to happen on the tour—­watching and waiting until the fitting moment had come, when all was over, for him to step in and demand the price of his silence and hold Mr. Jarvice in the hollow of his hand for all his life.  No, that would never do.  Garratt Skinner must be a partner so that also he might be an accessory.

Accordingly, Jarvice wrote his letter to Garratt Skinner, a few lines urging him to come to London on most important business.  Never was there a letter more innocent in its appearance than that which Jarvice wrote in his inner office on that summer afternoon.  Yet even at the last he hesitated whether he should seal it up or no.  The sun went down, shadows touched with long cool fingers the burning streets; shadows entered into that little inner office of Mr. Jarvice.  But still he sat undecided at his desk.

The tour upon the Continent must be abandoned, and with it the journey under canvas to the near East—­a scheme so simple, so sure, so safe.  Still Garratt Skinner might confidently be left to devise another.  And he had always kept faith.  To that comforting thought Mr. Jarvice clung.  He sealed up his letter in the end, and stood for a moment or two with the darkness deepening about him.  Then he rang for his clerk and bade him post it, but the voice he used was one which the clerk did not know, so that he pushed his head forward and peered through the shadows to make sure that it was his master who spoke.

Two days afterward Garratt Skinner paid a long visit to Mr. Jarvice, and that some agreement was reached between the two men shortly became evident.  For Walter Hine received a letter from Captain Barstow which greatly relieved him.

“Garratt Skinner has written to me,” wrote the ‘red-hot’ Captain, “that he has discovered that the gardener, whom he engaged for a particular job, is notorious as a poacher and a first-class shot.  Under these circumstances, my dear old fellow, the red-hot one cannot pouch your pennies.  As between gentlemen, the bet must be considered o-p-h.”

CHAPTER XVII

SYLVIA TELLS MORE THAN SHE KNOWS