n, of course, in
our name?"

The Earl twisted sharply in his chair, and Neale fancied that he saw a
shade of annoyance pass over his good-natured face.

"Certainly not!" he answered. "I should never have dreamt of asking for
a receipt from a man whom I knew as well as I knew--or thought I
knew--Horbury. The whole thing was just as if--well, as if I should ask
any friend to take care of something for me for a while."

"Did Horbury know what you were giving him?" asked Joseph.

"Of course!" replied the Earl. "As a matter of fact, he'd never seen
these things, and I took them out of their case and showed them to him."

"And he said he would lock them up?--in our strong room?" suggested the
soft voice.

"He said nothing about your strong room," answered the Earl. "Nor about
where he'd put them. That was understood. It was understood--a tacit
understanding--that he'd take care of them until our return."

"Did your lordship give him the date of your return?" persisted Joseph,
with the thorough-going air of a cross-examiner.

"Yes--I told him exactly when we should be back," replied the Earl. "The
twelfth of May--day before yesterday."

Joseph moved away from the sideboard towards the hearth, and leaning
against the mantelpiece threw a glance at the strong room.

"The jewels are not in our possession," he said, half indolently. "There
is nothing of that sort in there. There are two safes in the outer room
of the bank--I should say that Mr. Neale here knows everything that is
in them. Do you know anything of these jewels, Neale?"

"Nothing!" said Neale. "I never heard of them."

Gabriel looked up from his papers.

"None of us have heard of them," he remarked. "Horbury could not have
put them in this strong room without my knowledge. They are certainly
not there. The safes my nephew mentioned just now are used only for
books and papers. Your lordship's casket is not in either."

The Earl rose slowly from his chair. It was evident to Neale that he was
more surprised than angry: he looked around him as a man looks whose
understanding is suddenly brought up against something unexplainable.

"All I know is that I handed that casket to Mr. Horbury in his own
dining-room one evening some weeks ago," he said. "That's certain! So I
naturally expect to find it--here."

"And it is not here--that is equally certain," observed Gabriel. "What
is also certain is that our manager--trusted in more than he should have
been!--i