As soon as he had provided me with some breakfast, Mr. Gow departed for Tilbury with my letter to McMurtrie in his pocket.

I had lied to McMurtrie about my object, but the falsehood, such as it was, did not sit very heavily on my conscience.

I wanted to order a copy of a book dealing with a certain branch of high explosives that I had forgotten to ask McMurtrie for, and when I had done that I took the opportunity of buying a couple of novels by Wells which had been published since I went to prison.

I had given up any expectation of McMurtrie until the next morning.