sent to you, we made arrangements to credit your
firm with the value of the six cases, as suggested
by yourself. On taking this step, certain forms
observed in our mode of doing business necessitated a
reference to our bankers' book, as well as to our
ledger. The result is a moral certainty that no such
remittance as you mention can have reached our
house, and a literal certainty that no such
remittance has been paid to our account at the bank.

"It is needless, at this stage of the proceedings,
to trouble you with details. The money has
unquestionably been stolen in the course of its transit
from you to us. Certain peculiarities which we
observe, relating to the manner in which the fraud has
been perpetrated, lead us to conclude that the thief
may have calculated on being able to pay the
missing sum to our bankers, before an inevitable
discovery followed the annual striking of our balance.
This would not have happened, in the usual course,
for another three months. During that period, but
for your letter, we might have remained perfectly
unconscious of the robbery that has been committed.

"We mention this last circumstance, as it may
help to show you that we have to do, in this case,
with no ordinary thief. Thus far we have not even
a suspicion of who that thief is. But we believe
you will assist us in making some advance towards
discovery, by examining the receipt (forged, of course)
which has no doubt purported to come to you from
our house. Be pleased to look and see whether it is
a receipt entirely in manuscript, or whether it is a
numbered and printed form which merely requires
the filling in of the amount. The settlement of
this apparently trivial question is, we assure you, a
matter of vital importance. Anxiously awaiting
your reply, we remain, with high esteem and
consideration, " DEFRESNIER & Cie."

Vendale laid the letter on his desk, and
waited a moment to steady his mind under the
shock that had fallen on it. At the time of all
others when it was most important to him to
increase the value of his business, that business
was threatened with a loss of five hundred
pounds. He thought of Marguerite, as he took
the key from his pocket and opened the iron
chamber in the wall in which the books and
papers of the firm were kept.

He was still in the chamber, searching for
the forged receipt, when he was startled by a
voice speaking close behind him.

"A thousand pardons," said the voice; "I
am afraid I disturb you."

He turned, and found himself face to face
with Marguerite's guardian.

"I have called," pursued Obenreizer, "to
know if I can be of any use. Business of my
own takes me away for some days to Manchester
and Liverpool. Can I combine any business of
yours with it? I am entirely at your disposal,
in the character of commercial traveller for the
firm of Wilding and Co."

"Excuse me for one moment," said Vendale;
"I will speak to you directly." He turned
round again, and continued his search among
the papers. "You come at a time when
friendly offers are more than usually precious
to me," he resumed. "I have had very bad
news this morning from Neuchâtel."

"Bad news!" exclaimed Obenreizer." From
Defresnier and Company?"

"Yes. A remittance we sent to them has
been stolen. I am threatened with a loss of
five hundred pounds. What's that?"

Turning sharply, and looking into the room
for the second time, Vendale discovered his
envelope-case overthrown on the floor, and
Obenreizer on his knees picking up the contents.

"All my awkwardness!" said Obenreizer.
"This dreadful news of yours startled me; I
stepped back—-" He became too deeply
interested in collecting the scattered envelopes to
finish the sentence.

"Don't trouble yourself," said Vendale.
"The clerk will pick the things up."

"This dreadful news!" repeated Obenreizer,
persisting in collecting the envelopes. "This
dreadful news!"

"If you will read the letter," said Vendale,
"you will find I have exaggerated nothing.
There it is, open on my desk."

He resumed his search, and in a moment
more discovered the forged receipt. It was on
the numbered and printed form, described by
the Swiss firm. Vendale made a memorandum
of the number and the date. Having replaced
the receipt and locked up the iron chamber, he
had leisure to notice Obenreizer, reading the
letter in the recess of a window at the far end
of the room.

"Come to the fire," said Vendale. You
look perished with the cold out there. I will
ring for some more coals."

Obenreizer rose, and came slowly back to the
desk. "Marguerite will be as sorry to hear of
this as I am," he said, kindly. "What do you
mean to do?"

"I am in the hands of Defresnier and
Company," answered Vendale. "In my total ignorance
of the circumstances, I can only do what
they recommend. The receipt which I have
just found, turns out to be the numbered and
printed form. They seem to attach some special
importance to its discovery. You have had
experience, when you were in the Swiss house, of
their way of doing business. Can you guess
what object they have in view?"

Obenreizer offered a suggestion.

"Suppose I examine the receipt?" he said.

"Are you ill?" asked Vendale, startled by
the change in his face, which now showed itself
plainly for the first time. "Pray go to the fire.
You seem to be shivering—I hope you are not
going to be ill?"

"Not I!" said Obenreizer. "Perhaps I
have caught cold. Your English climate might
have spared an admirer of your English
institutions. Let me look at the receipt."

Vendale opened the iron chamber.
Obenreizer took a chair, and drew it close to the
fire. He held both hands over the flames.
"Let me look at the receipt," he repeated,
eagerly, as Vendale reappeared with the paper
in his hand. At the same moment a porter
entered the room with a fresh supply of coals.
Vendale told him to make a good fire. The
man obeyed the order with a disastrous alacrity.
As he stepped forward and raised the scuttle,
his foot caught in a fold of the rug, and he
discharged his entire cargo of coals into the grate.