Yes, there it
was, right enough! "Larne, Mrs. R., 23, Millicent Villas." And thinking
to himself: 'No time like the present,' he turned in that direction.
The job was delicate. He must be careful not to do anything which
might compromise his power of making public use of his knowledge.
Yes-ticklish! What he did now must have a proper legal bottom. Still,
anyway you looked at it, he had a right to investigate a fraud on
himself as a shareholder of "The Island Navigation Company," and a fraud
on himself as a creditor of old Heythorp. Quite! But suppose this Mrs.
Larne was really entangled with old Pillin, and the settlement a mere
reward of virtue, easy or otherwise. Well! in that case there'd be no
secret commission to make public, and he needn't go further. So that, in
either event, he would be all right. Only--how to introduce himself? He
might pretend he was a newspaper man wanting a story. No, that wouldn't
do! He must not represent that he was what he was not, in case he had
afterwards to justify his actions publicly, always a difficult thing, if
you were not careful! At that moment there came into his mind a question
Bob Pillin had asked the other night.
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