Page:Knaves of Diamonds.pdf/76

 and at six that evening he walked off to his lodgings with his heart in his mouth and a fortune in the lining of his somewhat shabby felt wideawake.

That night, albeit with some little fear and trembling, he permitted himself the luxury of a few minutes' examination of his plunder in bulk, and an estimate of its value—not to him, but to the more fortunate man who should succeed in getting the parcel through safely to London or Amsterdam. If he could only have done that himself he would never have needed to do another day's work in the world—but he was an employé, a sorter, and therefore a marked man, and the secret ramifications of the wonderful system which inclosed him and all like him as in a net were many and wide.

No, that risk was too great, considering that he could now make four or five thousand pounds in an hour or so, and at the same