The Mystery of Crocksands by Fred M. White

So far as Wrath himself was concerned, Ellen's work at Crocksands was more or less of a sinecure. At his dictation she wrote a few letters occasionally, but her real employer appeared to be Stone. It was with him she sat in the library from shortly after breakfast till lunch-time, engaged in a voluminous correspondence with certain people in Manchester, to most of whom she sent money in varying amounts, and always in Treasury notes or postal orders, which Stone himself procured in Lyndale and handed over to Ellen for transmission. The girl had been engaged in business long enough to realise that there was something sinister going on here. She wondered why as much as fifty pounds at a time was forwarded to a certain correspondent in Manchester, obviously for the purpose of inserting advertisements in papers published in the North of England. Then there were other remittances to printers of various coupons, all of which pointed to some big lottery in which Wrath and Stone were concerned. Occasionally, there were instructions to other members of the partnership in Manchester with regard to branch organisations on the Continent. Then there were other letters alluding to certain racehorses, so that very gradually the whole thing began to make itself plain to Ellen, until she had some sort of a grasp of the conspiracy.

From time to time large hampers arrived by train at Crocksands, always consigned from Manchester, and the contents of these Ellen was not permitted to see. She merely knew that they were carted up to a room at the top of the house, the door of which was rigidly locked, and that Wrath and Stone spent a large amount of time in going over them.