The remaining contents of the cashbox were gold and notes, amounting in all to a considerable sum. Basil counted the money, made a careful and exact record of it on a fair sheet of paper, replaced the papers and locked the box, and put it in a place of safety.
He was not long in arriving at a decision as to what he should do with respect to this money. For his own needs he would use the barest pittance upon which he could live, and some part of the money he would also use in the prosecution of his search for Newman Chaytor and Annette. In this expenditure he felt himself justified, and he would keep a strict and faithful account of the sums he expended. For the rest, if anything in the career of Newman Chaytor came to his knowledge, and he could in any way carry out the behests of the man lying dead in the room beyond, he would do it, and thus vicariously make atonement for the villain who had brought sorrow and misery upon all with whom he came in contact. For the present there were duties which demanded his attention, and Basil applied himself to the last sad offices towards those who had passed away. In the course of the week his task was accomplished. Mr. and Mrs. Chaytor lay in one grave, and Basil made arrangements for a stone, and for a continual supply of fresh flowers over the grave. Then, with a stern resolve, he set himself to the serious work before him, and to the design which had brought him home from the goldfields.
The first thing he did was to remove from the house which had been occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Chaytor, and take a room in a poor locality, for which he paid four shillings a week. Including this sum he thought he could live as well as he desired upon a pound a week. He experienced a grim satisfaction from the reflection that he was expending upon his own personal necessities some small portion of the fortune of which Newman Chaytor had so successfully robbed him. If the day ever arrived when it would be necessary to go into accounts with Newman Chaytor this slight expenditure would be placed to the villain's credit. He had an idea of returning to his lodgings in Mrs. Philpott's house, the assistance of whose husband he determined again to seek, but upon second thoughts he saw that he would be more free to act if he were not under the kindly surveillance of this estimable couple. Having established himself in his new quarters he went direct to Mrs. Philpott's residence in Lambeth. The woman was overjoyed to see him.