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"Hey, hey, what's this?" said Bones irritably "What the dooce is

this, my wicked old fiddle fellow?"

"Your cheque," said Mr Staines fir-roo-room?" repeated Bones "Didn't I buy this

property?"

"You did and you didn't To cut a long story short, Mr Tibbetts, I

have decided not to sell--in fact, I find that I have done an illegal

thing in selling at all"

Bones shrugged his shoulders Remember that he had slept, or

half-slept, for soe What he would have done is problematical, because at that

moment the radiant Miss Whitland passed into her office, and Bones's

acute ear heard the snap of her door

"One ruffly, "one h the door which separated the private from the public

portion of his suite, and Mr Staines listened He listened at varying

distances from the door, and in his last position it would have

required the most delicate of scientific instruments to measure the

distance between his ear and the keyhole He heard nothing save the

wail of a Bones distraught, and the firm "No's" of a self-possessed

female