“There you go off, half-primed again,” he said, good-humoredly: “you regard as sure proof a circumstance which may be accidental, and at the most only probable.”
“No, patron, no! a man like you could not be mistaken: doubt no longer exists.”
“That being the case, what deductions would you draw from our discovery?”
“In the first place, it proves that I am correct in thinking the cashier innocent.”
“How so?”
“Because, at perfect liberty to open the safe whenever he wished to do so, it is not likely that he would have brought a witness when he intended to commit the theft.”
“Well reasoned, Fanferlot. But on this supposition the banker would be equally innocent: reflect a little.”
Fanferlot reflected, and all of his animation vanished.
“You are right,” he said in a despairing tone. “What can be done now?”
“Look for the third rogue, or rather the real rogue, the one who opened the safe, and stole the notes, and who is still at large, while others are suspected.”