read. He thought he had heard
the street door open and shut at about a quarter to ten; he supposed
that it was Mr. Ireland going out to his club, but at ten minutes to ten
o'clock the watchman heard the door of the manager's room open, and some
one enter, immediately closing the glass partition door and turning the
key.

"He naturally concluded it was Mr. Ireland himself.

"From where he sat he could not see into the room, but he noticed that
the electric light had not been switched on, and that the manager
seemingly had no light but an occasional match.

"'For the minute,' continued James Fairbairn, 'a thought did just cross
my mind that something might perhaps be wrong, and I put my newspaper
aside and went to the other end of the room towards the glass partition.
The manager's room was still quite dark, and I could not clearly see
into it, but the door into the hall was open, and there was, of course,
a light through there. I had got quite close to the partition, when I
saw Mrs. Ireland standing in the doorway, and heard her saying in a very
astonished tone of voice: 'Why, Lewis, I thought you had gone to your
club ages ago. What in the world are you doing here in the dark?'

"'Lewis is Mr. Ireland's Christian name,' was James Fairbairn's further
statement. 'I did not hear the manager's reply, but quite satisfied now
that nothing was wrong, I went back to my pipe and my newspaper. Almost
directly afterwards I heard the manager leave his room, cross the hall
and go out by the street door. It was only after he had gone that I
recollected that he must have forgotten to unlock the glass partition
and that I could not therefore bolt the door into the hall the same as
usual, and I suppose that is how those confounded thieves got the better
of me.'"

CHAPTER XIX

CONFLICTING EVIDENCE

"By the time the public had been able to think over James Fairbairn's
evidence, a certain disquietude and unrest had begun to make itself felt
both in the bank itself and among those of our detective force who had
charge of the case. The newspapers spoke of the matter with very obvious
caution, and warned all their readers to await the further development
of this sad case.

"While the manager of the English Provident Bank lay in such a
precarious condition of health, it was impossible to arrive at any
definite knowledge as to what the thief had actually made away with. The
chief cashier, however, estimated the loss at about