rough the 'phone to Mr. Bone, asking him to come in."

"Does not the porter come to your room occasionally?"

"He never comes into the room after nine o'clock."

"Cannot other clerks enter?"

"Not without permission. The door fastens with a spring lock."

"How about your lunch?"

"Our lunch is handed us at half-past twelve through the door which we
open."

"Now, Mr. Roe, with your knowledge of the case, what is your conviction
concerning this lost package of money?"

"Major, I am compelled to say that I have not the faintest suspicion as
to how it was taken."

Moving suddenly around, the major looked at the cashier and said: "Mr.
Bone, what was your business in the teller's room this morning?"

"It is one of my duties, morning and evening, to tally the cash taken
from the vault and returned in the evening."

"How long were you there this morning?"

"Perhaps fifteen or twenty minutes."

"When were you there the next time?"

"About half-past two, when Mr. Roe 'phoned me to come to his room, and I
again opened the vault, that the teller might get some money to cash the
large draft of one hundred and thirty-eight thousand pounds."

Much discussion followed this informal catechising, but the only thing
evident was that the package was lost. How it had disappeared, or where
it was, none could so much as guess. Here were twenty men--thorough
business men--several of whom had had large and successful banking
experience, among them a cashier than whom there was no brighter
financier in the great city of London, and the chief of a peerless
detective force, with two of his shrewdest colleagues. All were
nonplussed, annoyed, humiliated, returning to their homes and leaving the
great building in charge of half a score of sturdy watchmen, safer, it
would seem, in the night than in the day.

Next day several city newspapers had the following:

"REWARD

"A reward of TEN THOUSAND POUNDS will be paid for the arrest of the party
or parties who abstracted a valuable package of Bank of England notes
April 11, 18--, from said bank. This currency can be of no value to the
thieves, as the bank holds a list of the numbers, and their circulation
has been ordered stopped. The receiver of any of these notes will be
liable to arrest."

Nearly every important newspaper in the kingdom copied this item. Besides
this, a list of the numbers of the lost notes was sent to every banking
institution in England and America.

C