Page:The Duke Decides (1904).djvu/280

 that, and to have to cart it up to London all by your lone self—why, it’s enough to make one shudder.”

“It doesn’t me,” the Senator replied simply, with an unconscious gesture to his hip-pocket. “I have a bit of a reputation to live up to, you know. If it’s to be shooting, my early training has taught me to draw first; and if it’s to be confidence-men—well, it’s some years since I was born.”

The purser nodded and went about his duties while Sherman leaned over the forward rail and watched the shore, looming larger now every moment. The Senator was no backwoods “hayseed.” A man of culture and much travel, he possessed far more than a guidebook knowledge of every European capital, and did not make the mistake of underestimating London as a hatching-ground for crime. Till his precious charge was deposited in the Bank of England and he had fingered the receipt he was prepared for emergencies. The gold shipment which his Government had negotiated against the bonds he was bringing had been buzzed about in Wall Street for two months and more—ample time for the maturing of predatory schemes.