"Oh, Lor'," cried Alexander, "she'll give me beans!"
"You deserve the worst beating she can give you," said Steel severely, while the clerks grinned. "However, you must come with me.
Where do you live?"
"Warder Street, Lambeth," snuffled Alexander, and urged by the hand on his collar, went out of the office with the detective.
"We'll take a hansom," said Steel, and shortly was ensconced in one with the miserable Alexander.
As a rule a ride in a hansom would have been a joy to Master Benker, but he was too much afraid of the meeting with his mother to take any pleasure in the treat.
However, he relied on the promise of the detective that he would sooth the maternal ire, and managed to reply fairly well to the questions Steel asked.
These referred to Mr. Wilson.
"Who is he?" demanded the detective.
"Mother's lodger," replied Alexander; "he's been with her six months, and mother thought a deal of him.
He was kind to me."
"Ah!
Was he well off?"
"I don't know.
He paid his rent regular, but he wore shabby clothes, and was always out.
I only saw him at night when I came home from the office."
"Did he ask you many questions about the office?"
"Oh, yes.
He said he wished me to get on—that I was a smart boy, and a credit to my mother."
"So you are," answered Steel genially. "I'm sure she'll give you a proof of her approval to-day.
Now don't cry, boy." Steel shook Alexander, and then demanded suddenly, "You copy all the letters, do you not?"
"Yes, I do," answered Master Benker, wondering why this was asked.
"And you read them sometimes?"
"Nearly always.
I like to know what's going on.
Mr. Wilson said I should make myself acquainted with everything."
"I'm sure he did," muttered Steel ironically. "Did you read any letter saying that Miss Kent had inherited a fortune?
Miss Daisy Kent, who lived with Mr. Morley at Rickwell?"
Alexander thought for a moment.
"Yes, I did.
It was a letter to some lawyers in Sydney."
"Did you tell Mr. Wilson about it?"
"Yes, sir.
He was always talking about people coming in for money, and I said that a girl called Miss Kent had come in for five thousand a year."
"I thought so.
When did you tell Mr. Wilson this?"
"Three days after Christmas."
"Before he offered to serve the summons?"
"Why, I hadn't got the summons then," said Alexander. "Mr. Asher gave it to me the day before New Year.
I said I was going into the country to Rickwell, for Mr. Wilson asked me what I was making myself smart for.
He said he'd take the summons, and that I could go to the Hippodrome with Jim Tyler."
"Which you did on your employer's money.
You are a smart lad, Alexander.
What did your mother say?"
"Mother was out when I came home with the summons, and after Mr. Wilson said he'd take it I didn't say anything to her."
"Then she thought that on the day before the New Year you were at the office as usual?"
"Yes," snuffled Master Benker, "she did.
Oh, Lor'!" as the cab stopped before a tidy house in a quiet street, "here we are."
"And there is your mother," said the detective cheerfully, as a severe face appeared at the white-curtained window.
Alexander wept afresh as Steel paid the cabman, and positively howled when the door opened and his mother—a lean woman in a black dress, with a widow's cap—appeared.