You shook him by the hand. You left him at the
hotel at Southampton only an hour before you got my telegram."
"What of it?" Stanley asked.
"Nothing, except this," Mr. Bundercombe concluded: "Your two partners were
so scared at the result of the Hammersmith affair and at your sentence
that they turned over a new leaf. They went into business as outside
stockbrokers--with your capital. The agreement as to a third profits was
still in force. They had what I can describe only as the devil's own luck.
I should say their total capital to-day is at least fifty thousand pounds.
"The time came for you to be released. They had no idea of parting with a
third of their money and taking you into the business. All the time they
had deceived you. They continued the deception. Harding met you as a poor
man. But for me you would have been on your way to South Africa by this
time, with a hundred pounds in your pocket."
"Is what you are telling me the truth?" Stanley demanded.
"Absolutely!" Mr. Bundercombe declared. "I stumbled across the truth in
making inquiries concerning you and your probable future. I had meant, as
a matter of fact, to put up a little money of my own to give you a fresh
start. In the course of these inquiries I happened to run across a young
woman who had been a typist in Harding's office.
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