The Affair of the Avalanche Bicycle and Tyre, Co., Ltd. | Page 9

still in my
pocket-book, where I put it last night by the light of the lantern; just a
sticky black silk thread, that's all. I've only brought it to show you I'm
playing a fair game with you. Of course, I might easily have got a
witness before I took the thread off the nut, if I had thought you were
likely to fight the matter. But I knew you were not. You can't fight, you
know, with this bogus company business known to me. So that I am

only shoving you this thread as an act of grace, to prove that I have
stumped you with perfect fairness. And now the hundred. Here's a
fountain pen, if you want one."
"Well," said Mallows glumly, "I suppose I must, then." He took the pen
and wrote the cheque. Dorrington blotted it on the pad of his
pocket-book and folded it away.
"So much for that!" he said. "That's just a little preliminary, you
understand. We've done these little things just as a guarantee of good
faith -- not necessarily for publication, though you must remember that
as yet there's nothing to prevent it. I've the done you a turn by finding
out who upset those bicycles, as you so ardently wished me to do last
night, and you've loyally fulfilled your part of the contract by paying
the promised reward -- though I must say that you haven't paid with all
the delight and pleasure you spoke of at the time. But I'll forgive you
that, and now that the little hors d'œuvre is disposed of, we'll proceed to
serious business."
Mallows looked uncomfortably glum.
"But you mustn't look so ashamed of yourself, you know," Dorrington
said, purposely misinterpreting his glumness. "It's all business. You
were disposed for a little side flutter, so to speak -- a little speculation
outside your regular business. Well, you mustn't be ashamed of that."
"No," Mallows observed, assuming something of his ordinarily
ponderous manner; "no, of course not. It's a little speculative deal.
Everybody does it, and there's a deal of money going."
"Precisely. And since everybody does it, and there is so much money
going, you are only making your share."
"Of course." Mr. Mallows was almost pompous by now.
"Of course." Dorrington coughed slightly. "Well now, do you know, I
am exactly the same sort of man as yourself -- if you don't mind the
comparison. I am disposed for a little side butter, so to speak -- a little

speculation outside my regular business. I also am not ashamed of it.
And since everybody does it, and there is so much money going -- why,
I am thinking of making my share. So that we are evidently a pair, and
naturally intended for each other!"
Mr. Paul Mallows here looked a little doubtful.
"See here, now," Dorrington proceeded. "I have lately taken it into my
head to operate a little on the cycle share market. That was why I came
round myself about that little spoke affair, instead of sending an
assistant. I wanted to know somebody who understood the cycle trade,
from whom I might get tips. Yon see I'm perfectly frank with you. Well,
I have succeeded uncommonly well. And I want you to understand that
I have gone every step of the way by fair work. I took nothing for
granted, and I played the game fairly. When you asked me (as you had
anxious reason to ask) if I had found anything, I told you there was
nothing very big -- and see what a little thing the thread was! Before I
came away from the pavilion I made sure that you were really the only
man there with black court plaster on his fingers. I had noticed the
hands of every man but two, and I made all excuse of borrowing
something, to see those. I saw your thin presence of suspecting the
betting men, and I played up to it. I have had a telegraphic report on
your Exeter works this morning -- a deserted cloth mills with nothing
on it of yours but a sign-board, and only a deposit of rent paid. There
they referred to the works here. Here they referred to the works there. It
was very clever, really! Also I have had a telegraphic report of your
make-up adventure this morning. Clarkson does it marvellously, doesn't
he? And, by the way, that telegram bringing you down to Birmingham
was not from your confederate here, as perhaps you fancied. It was
from me. Thanks for coming so promptly. I managed to get a quiet look
round here just before you arrived, and on the whole the conclusion I
come to as to the 'Avalanche Bicycle & Tyre Company, Limited,' is
this: A clever man,