Of course it could not be; but George, by that time, was scared at his own shadow.
He is shirking it with Cloete, too.

Gives his partner to understand that his brother has half a mind to try a spell on shore, and so on.

Cloete waits, gnawing his fingers; so anxious.

Cloete really had found a man for the job.

Believe it or not, he had found him inside the very boarding-house he lodged in--somewhere about Tottenham Court Road.