I strongly urge you not to
trust the receipt to the post. Send it to me, without loss of time,
by a private hand, and choose nobody for your messenger but a person
long established in your own employment, accustomed to travelling,
capable of speaking French; a man of courage, a man of honesty, and,
above all things, a man who can be trusted to let no stranger scrape
acquaintance with him on the route. Tell no one--absolutely no
one--but your messenger of the turn this matter has now taken. The
safe transit of the receipt may depend on your interpreting
_literally_ the advice which I give you at the end of this letter.
"I have only to add that every possible saving of time is now of the
last importance. More than one of our receipt-forms is missing--and
it is impossible to say what new frauds may not be committed if we
fail to lay our hands on the thief.
Your faithful servant
ROLLAND,
(Signing for Defresnier and Cie.)
Who was the suspected man? In Vendale's position, it seemed useless to
inquire.
Who was to be sent to Neuchatel with the receipt? Men of courage and men
of honesty were to be had at Cripple Corner for the asking. But where
was the man who was accustomed to foreign travelling, who could speak the
French language, and who could be really relied on to let no stranger
scrape acquaintance with him on his route? There was but one man at hand
who combined all those requisites in his own person, and that man was
Vendale himself.
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