'
'I'll have a look round, and if I see him I'll send him home,' said
Slivers, rising to intimate the interview was at end.
'Very well, mind you do,' said the widow, rising and putting the
empty glass on the table, 'send him home at once and I'll speak to
him. And perhaps,' with a bashful glance, 'you wouldn't mind seeing
me up the street a short way, as I'm alone and unprotected.'
'Stuff!' retorted Slivers, ungraciously, 'there's plenty of light,
and you are big enough to look after yourself.'
At this Mrs Cheedle snorted loudly like a war-horse, and flounced
out of the office in a rage, after informing Slivers in a loud voice
that he was a selfish, cork-eyed little viper, from which confusion
of words it will easily be seen that the whisky had taken effect on
the good lady.
When she had gone Slivers locked up his office, and sallied forth to
find the missing Villiers, but though he went all over town to that
gentleman's favourite haunts, mostly bars, yet he could see nothing
of him; and on making inquiries heard that he had not been seen in
Ballarat all day. This was so contrary to Villiers' general habits
that Slivers became suspicious, and as he walked home thinking over
the subject he came to the conclusion there was something up.
'If,' said Slivers, pausing on the pavement and addressing a street
lamp, 'he doesn't turn up to-morrow I'll have a look for him again.
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