"Are you sure of this, boy?" he said hoarsely. "Are you sure that you
have made no mistake in your figures?"

"Quite sure," Cyril said firmly. "In all cases in which I have found
deficiencies I have gone through the books three times and compared
the figures, and I am sure that if you put the books into the hands
of any city accountant, he will bear out my figures."

For a time Captain Dave sat silent.

"Hast any idea," he said at last, "how this has come about?"

"I have none," Cyril replied. "That John Wilkes is not concerned in
it I am as sure as you are; and, thinking the matter over, I see not
how the apprentices could have carried off so many articles, some
heavy and some bulky, when they left the shop in the evening, without
John Wilkes noticing them. So sure am I, that my advice would be that
you should take John Wilkes into your confidence, and tell him how
matters stand. My only objection to that is that he is a hasty man,
and that I fear he would not be able to keep his countenance, so that
the apprentices would remark that something was wrong. I am far from
saying that they have any hand in it; it would be a grievous wrong to
them to have suspicions when there is no shadow of evidence against
them; but at any rate, if this matter is to be stopped and the
thieves detected, it is most important that they should have, if they
are guilty, no suspicion that they are in any way being watched, or
that these deficiencies have been discovered. If they have had a hand
in the matter they most assuredly had accomplices, for such goods
could not be disposed of by an apprentice to any dealer without his