“Was it that boy I sent here yesterday?”
“That boy?” she asked, doubtfully, as a sudden dishonorable thought shot across her mind.
“Yes! It was he! He gave you the silk!” He spoke with a tone of conviction.
“I will not answer! I will answer nothing! Not now! I must have time to think!”
With a quick, stooping motion she broke from him, and darted out of the door of the room, her black hair streaming behind her, her pallid, scared face haunting him as if he had seen a specter.
CHAPTER X.
A CONFERENCE.
Mr. Leonard and the officer were closeted in close conversation. On this occasion the latter was in his ordinary dress. The fact of the loss of the three pieces of cloth was known throughout the store, and there was no need of secrecy in this interview.
“The whole affair is growing more and more mixed,” he said, after listening gravely to Mr. Leonard. “The clew lays somewhere in your own store, but it will take time to get hold of the end of it. The parties are very shrewd.”
“I can scarcely imagine any of my young men as being dishonest,” said the merchant. “I have trusted them all, time and again.”