"I give you my word of honour that, if you let me walk quietly by your side, I will not attempt to run away. Why should I? I tell you I know nothing of the cheque!"
"All right! And I tell you this, I hope you will be able to prove it," said the man in a more friendly tone.
And the two walked on together, the few people who passed them little thinking that Arthur was a prisoner and the stranger a detective.
It was not a very long walk to the police station, and as soon as Arthur reached it, the warrant for his arrest was read over to him, and the inspector in charge asked him if he wished to send a message to his friends.
"I should like to send a note to Mr. Andrews, the lawyer, to ask him to come and see me, and also to Mr. Brading's, to tell them why I cannot go there this morning. But I would rather not let my mother know what has happened just yet."
Arthur spoke very calmly, but he had turned deathly pale while he was speaking, for after all, it would not be so easy to prove his innocence, he feared.
The inspector told him he could come to the desk and write the notes himself, and a messenger should take them at once, and possibly the lawyer might be able to see him before the magistrate arrived, who would hear the case about twelve o'clock.
So Arthur wrote to the lawyer, stating what had happened, and at the same time, saying he knew nothing of the cheque. He wrote the other note to Mr. Bristow, saying he had been arrested and had sent for Mr. Andrews. Of course, this gentleman knew all about the affair, but was none the less astonished at the turn the business had taken.
"That Lady Mary has let her temper blind her!" he exclaimed half-aloud, as he commenced Arthur's task of sorting the letters.
When Mr. Andrews received Arthur's note, which was placed on the table of his own private room in the office, he was dumfoundered. He had heard from Mr. Brading something about a letter being lost, but he had not thought much of it. And to hear that the lad in whom he had begun to take so deep an interest had been arrested for the theft, was something so unexpected, so bewildering, that at first he could only sit and stare at Arthur's note, and wonder what his first step in the matter ought to be.