The Defeat of Rundermere
––––––––
Mannister became aware, some few weeks after the disappearance of Polsover, of a certain restraint in the demeanour of both Hambledon and Jacobs towards himself. They came less often to Luigi’s, and though they welcomed him when they did meet there or elsewhere, he had a very shrewd suspicion that so far as they were able they were avoiding him. One day he taxed them with it, and Hambledon, with somewhat rare candour, admitted the fact.
“It isn’t that I’m particularly superstitious, Mannister,” he declared, “but ever since your return things have gone wrong with us. Poor Ben has been obliged to go to Canada over that affair of the bracelet, and they say that he’s drinking like a fish there, and Polsover we’ve lost altogether. Both these things happened
