CHAPTER 8

“SHOW HIM in,” said Mr Bertram Cody. He was a little bald man with a gentle voice and the habit of redundancy. He required five minutes to say all that any other man could express in three sentences. Of this fault, if fault it was, he was well aware and made a jest of his weakness. Fixing his large gold-rimmed spectacles, he peered at the card again— MR JOHN RENDLE, 194, COLLINS STREET, MELBOURNE The name meant nothing to Mr Cody. He had known a Rendle in the eightie…