"He came to me last night and said that he was going up to London to pay his debts. This morning he went off at seven without taking leave. Now, Mr Pratt, you have been giving him the money to pay his debts."
"Indeed I have not, Mrs Gabriel," said Pratt, quite prepared for this question. "I have not given him a sixpence."
"Then where did he get so large a sum?" asked the lady, anxiously.
"I don't know. He told me that someone had lent it to him."
"A likely story! As if anyone here would trust him with money without a guarantee! Mr Pratt—" Here Mrs Gabriel stopped and her face went white. A thought had struck her and she was about to speak. But she saved herself in time and stared at her companion.
"What is the matter?" said Pratt, anxiously. He thought she would faint, a weakness he had never hitherto associated with Mrs Gabriel.
"Nothing," she replied in a strangled voice. "But Leo—I must see Frank," and without another word she hurried away.
Pratt stared after her as he could not conjecture what she meant. Then he shrugged his shoulders and went back to The Nun's House. That same afternoon he called again at the Vicarage, and there found Mr Tempest in consultation with a grey-haired man whom he introduced as Inspector German. The police officer, who had a shrewd face with keen eyes, nodded in a friendly manner. "I understand you gave this cup to the chapel, Mr Pratt," he said. "Pity it is lost."
"A great pity," replied Pratt, who was making a thorough examination of the man, and now seemed much more at ease than when he had entered. "I hope the thief has gone away, however. I have in my house several thousand pounds' worth of gems, and I don't want him to come after them."
"How do you know it was a man?" asked German, quietly.