Explore "The Leopard's Spots" by Fred M. White on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
To do him justice Montagu Stagg was no hardened criminal. For instance, he had been perfectly right when he told Everard Stokes in that humorously philosophical way of his that there were many worse men than himself who died in the odour of sanctity and in the esteem of their fellow creatures. It was not much that Stagg wanted, merely a percentage of the money which most of his clients were bent on throwing away. It would have been easy enough for Stagg, in the guise of 'Frank Fair,' to have had the lot, whereas he was content with a margin, and really went out of his way to give disinterested advice of a valuable nature as to the balance.
But here, possibly, was an opportunity of raking in something substantial. By mere accident in connection with that insatiable curiosity of his, and the accidental ringing of the wrong bell, he had come in contact with a mystery which promised not only real tangible results, but a certain service rendered to the State. And because this was so Stagg devoted a good deal of his time for the next few days in an attempt to get to the bottom of the business.