The Lost Clue by O.F. Walton

A FEW days later, and during the first week of the new year, Captain Fortescue was once more to be seen at the large railway station in Sheffield. He was doing what he had never done in the whole course of his life before; he was taking a third-class ticket. He was a poor man now, and he felt that he must act as one.

It was a new experience for him to be obliged to pull himself up at every turn when he was on the point of spending little sums of money. Instead of buying, as before, several books and papers at the stall, he contented himself with a copy of one paper only; instead of ordering a luncheon basket, he was carrying in his pocket a small packet of sandwiches which old Elkington had carefully wrapped up for him that morning; instead of coming to the station in a cab, he had made use of a public conveyance.