The Twin Detectives; or, The Robbers of the Tomb — page 55: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

46 THE TWIN DETECTIVES. CHAPTER IX. A STRANGE FOREBODING. Bates, the detective, was a well-meaning but sadly ineffi- cient officer. He had mistaken his vocation. Nature never intended him for the secret service. He was painstaking and con- scientious, but he lacked shrewdness, and he believed every- thing he was told. Bob Brierly had not treated him well in the case they _ ‘were employed 211 5h eMe sh. Bates acted in all good faith toward the young detective, whose professional reputation stood higher than his own. Bob, on the contrary, gave no confidence to Bates; he ig- nored him. ‘This was neither polite nor honest. Bates felt mortified when he heard at the head office that his’ associate had gone off to New York without informing him of his intention. Two days after he received an anonymous letter, which ran thus: | ‘McLean, the steward, did not sail in the Egyptian Monarch, as Bob _ Brierly supposed. He leaves for Australia on board the Hamstead this evening under an assumed name, A FRIEND.” Bates might have gloated over Bob’s error, if he had been a malicious man, but he was not, and he felt sorry. He de- pended in a great measure on his confrere’s sagacity for the success of their investigation of this difficult case. He knew Brierly despised him, but he thought it was his duty to keep Bob posted up in any detail that came to his knowledge. He took the letter to the office and asked the inspector what he - thought of it. Eomicbooks.co m