Bentham
Gibbes as I took my departure.

I went directly downstairs, and knocked at Mr. Dacre's door once more.
He opened the door himself, his man not yet having returned.

'Ah, monsieur,' he cried, 'back already? You don't mean to tell me you
have so soon got to the bottom of the silver spoon entanglement?'

'I think I have, Mr. Dacre. You were sitting at dinner opposite Mr
Vincent Innis. You saw him conceal a silver spoon in his pocket. You
probably waited for some time to understand what he meant by this, and
as he did not return the spoon to its place, you proposed a conjuring
trick, made the bet with him, and thus the spoon was returned to the
table.'

'Excellent! excellent, monsieur! that is very nearly what occurred,
except that I acted at once. I had had experiences with Mr. Vincent
Innis before. Never did he enter these rooms of mine without my
missing some little trinket after he was gone. Although Mr. Innis is a
very rich person, I am not a man of many possessions, so if anything
is taken, I meet little difficulty in coming to a knowledge of my
loss. Of course, I never mentioned these abstractions to him. They
were all trivial, as I have said, and so far as the silver spoon was
concerned, it was of no great value either. But I thought the bet and
the recovery of the spoon would teach him a lesson; it apparently has
not done so. On the night of the twenty-third he sat at my right hand,
as you will see by consulting your diagram of the table and the
guests. I asked him a question twice, to which he did not reply, and
looking at him I was startled by the expression in his eyes. They were
fixed on a distant corner of the room, and following his gaze I saw
what he was staring at with such hypnotising concentration. So
absorbed was he in contemplation of the packet there so plainly
exposed, now my attention was turned to it, that he seemed to be
entirely oblivious of what was going on around him. I roused him from
his trance by jocularly calling Gibbes's attention to the display of
money. I expected in this way to save Innis from committing the act
which he seemingly did commit. Imagine then the dilemma in which I was
placed when Gibbes confided to me the morning after what had occurred
the night before. I was positive Innis had taken the money, yet I
possessed no proof of it. I could not tell Gibbes, and I dare not
speak to Innis. Of course, monsieur, you do not need to be told that
Innis is not a thief in th