"An, and now he has go away and I do not see him. You want that you shall arrest him?"
"No, I don't care anything about him," said Jack, "but I did want to know how the watch got in my pocket without my knowing it."
"An, that is one easy thing to do," laughed the girl. "Then you do not mean to make me arrest?"
"No, certainly not," said Jack.
"I am very glad. Good morning, sir," said Gabrielle, and in a moment she had whisked past the boys, and when they turned to see where she had gone she had disappeared.
"Well, that thing is explained at any rate," said Percival. "We thought she might have done it, but I don't see now how she managed it."
"She is evidently very quick in her motions," suggested Jack, "and from what we know of the man she was with, she may have been just such a character herself, and have learned deftness of fingers from him. He was evidently a pickpocket, and perhaps she had practiced the trade herself. That is the only explanation I can give."
"No doubt it is the correct one, but it does not matter. It is really the only feasible explanation there is. She had had the watch, and she was the only one who was close enough to you that night to have done it."
"Well, we shall probably not see her again to find out just how she did it, and very likely she would not tell us, as that would be revealing one of the secrets of the trade, and, of course, she could not do that."