MURDER When Mallalieu had gone, Cotherstone gathered up the papers which his clerk had brought in, and sitting down at his desk tried to give his attention to them.

The effort was not altogether a success.

He had hoped that the sharing of the bad news with his partner would bring some relief to him, but his anxieties were still there.

He was always seeing that queer, sinister look in Kitely's knowing eyes: it suggested that as long as Kitely lived there would be no safety.

Even if Kitely kept his word, kept any compact made with him, he would always have the two partners under his thumb.