firm whose head he was were placed in the
vaults of the great banking-room. He kept the key of this safe himself.
If it ever went into the hands of the clerk, it was only to bring it
from the lock-drawer in the vaults; he was never trusted to deposit it
there. Mr. Checkynshaw did not look at the safe till he had thoroughly
digested the affair which had just transpired. When he was ready to go
home to dinner, just before three o'clock, he went to the safe to lock
it, and secure the key where prying curiosity could not obtain it.

It was not in the door, where he had left it; but this did not startle
him. His thoughts appeared to be still abstracted by the subject which
had occupied them since the affray, and he was walking mechanically
about the office. He went to the safe as much from the force of habit
as for any reason, for he always secured it when he was about to leave.

"Charles!" he called, raising one of the ground-glass windows between
the office and the banking-room.

The door opened, and one of the younger clerks presented himself.

"Bring me the key of this safe from the drawer in the vault."

Charles bowed, and Mr. Checkynshaw continued to walk back and forth,
absorbed in thought.

"The key of the safe is not in the drawer, sir," replied the clerk.

The banker tried the safe door, and then felt in all his pockets. The
safe was locked, but he had not the key. He went to the vault himself,
but with no better success than the clerk had had.

"The puppy!" muttered the banker. "He has stolen that key!"

Mr. Checkynshaw's lips were compressed, and his teeth were set tight
together. He paced the room more rapidly than before.

"Fudge!" exclaimed he, after he had worked himself into a state of
partial frenzy, as the hard muscles of his face suddenly relaxed, and
something like a smile rested upon his lips. "He couldn't have done
it."

Certainly not. The banker had not opened the safe till after his return
from the barber's shop, where he had reproved his clerk, and Fitz did
not go near the safe during the sharp interview in the office.

"Burnet," said the banker, going to the open window.

This time the elderly man, to whom Leo Maggimore had applied, presented
himself.

"Have you seen the key of my safe?" demanded Mr. Checkynshaw.

"No, sir."

"Where is it, then?"

"I do not know, sir," replied Burnet, whose communications were always
"yea, yea; nay, nay."

"I have discharged Fitz."

Burnet b