No--all things considered, he did not believe that Stoner had shared his knowledge--Stoner would be too well convinced of its value to share it with anybody.

That conclusion comforted Mallalieu--once more he tried to sleep.
But his sleep was a poor thing that night, and he felt tired and worn when, as usual, he went early to the yard.

He was there before Cotherstone; when Cotherstone came, no more than a curt nod was exchanged between them.

They had never spoken to each other except on business since the angry scene of a few days before, and now Mallalieu, after a glance at some letters which had come in the previous evening, went off down the yard.

He stayed there an hour: when he re-entered the office he looked with an affectation of surprise at the clerk's empty desk.
"Stoner not come ?" he demanded curtly.
Cotherstone, who was turning over the leaves of an account book, replied just as curtly.
"Not yet!" Mallalieu fidgeted about for a while, arranging some papers he had brought in from the yard.