"
"Would 'ee mind waitin' a moment? I've a cheque I want cashed at Climo
and Hodges for a biggish sum: but you'm a man I can trust to bring
back the money safe."
"Sutt'nly," said Long Oliver.
Geake went into the house and wrote a short letter to the bankers.
He asked them to send back by messenger, and in return for cheque
enclosed, the sum of twenty-five pounds, in five new five-pound notes.
He was aware (he said) that the balance of his running account was but
a pound or two: but as they held something over fifty pounds of his on
deposit, he felt sure they would oblige him and enable him to meet a
sudden call.
"Twenty-five pounds is the sum," he explained; "an' you must be sure
to get it in five-pound notes--_new five-pound notes_. You'll not
forget that?" He closed the envelope and handed it up to Long Oliver,
who buttoned it in his breast-pocket.
"You shall have it, Mr. Geake, by five o'clock this evenin'," said he,
giving the reins a shake on the mare's back; "so 'long!" and he rattled
off.
A mile, and a trifle more, beyond Geake's cottage, he came in sight
of a man clad in blue sailor's cloth, trudging briskly ahead.
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