“Tell me just how you took it,” said Roy, getting rather more calm and judicial in his manner.
“I saw Mr. Horner give Signor Sardoni the change, sir, and I saw him put the note in the till; and I was just desperate with being in debt and not knowing how to get straight again.”
“But wait a minute—how had you got into such difficulties?” interrupted Roy. “And how could a five-pound note help you out again?”
“Well, sir, I had been unlucky in a betting transaction, but I thought I could right myself if only I could get something to try again with; but there wasn’t a soul I could borrow from. I thought I should get straight again at once if only I had five pounds in hand, and so I did, sir; I was on my feet again the very next day.”
“I might have known it was betting that had ruined you,” said Roy. “Now go back and tell me when you took the note.”
“I kept on thinking and planning through the afternoon, sir, and then, presently, all was quiet, and only Mr. Falck with me in the shop, and I was just wondering how to get rid of him, when Mr. Horner opened the door of Mr. Boniface’s room and called to me. Then I said, ‘Do go, Mr. Falck, for I have an order to write to catch the post.’ And he went for me, and I hurried across to his counter while he was gone, and took the note out of his till and put it inside my boot; and when he came back he found me writing at my desk just as he had left me. He came up looking a little put out, as if Mr. Horner had rubbed him the wrong way, and he says to me, ‘It’s no use; you must go yourself, after all.’ So I went to Mr. Horner, leaving Mr. Falck alone in the shop.”
“Were you not afraid lest he should open the till and find out that the note was gone?”
“Yes, I was very much afraid. But all went well, and I intended to go out quickly at tea-time—it was close upon it then—and do what I could to get it straight again. I thought I could invent an excuse for not returning to the shop that night; say I’d been taken suddenly ill or something of that sort. It was Mr. Falck’s turn to go first; and while he was out, as ill-luck would have it, Mr. Horner came to take change from the till, and then all the row began. I made sure I was ruined, and no one was more surprised than myself at the turn that affairs took.”
“But,” exclaimed Roy, “when you were once more out of debt, how was it that you did not confess, and do what you could to make up for your shameful conduct?”
“Well, sir, I hadn’t the courage. Sometimes I thought I would; and then, again, I couldn’t make up my mind to; and I got to hate Mr. Falck, and I hated him more because he behaved well about it; and I got into the way of spiting him and making the place disagreeable to him; and I hoped that he would leave. But he stuck to his post through it all; and I began to think that it would be safer that I should leave, for I felt afraid of him somehow. So at Michaelmas I took this situation. And oh! sir, for my wife’s sake don’t ruin me; don’t expose all this to my employer!”