The moment after entering, Jared started as if alarmed, for there, close beside him, stood a figure in the dim aisle, but he recovered himself instantly upon seeing that it was only the old vicar, whilst behind him stood churchwarden Timson; and then it was that Jared saw that they had been emptying the poor-box.
“How do Mr Pellett? Nice day,” said the vicar, cordially. Then turning to the churchwarden—
“Must be something more, Mr Timson; feel again.”
Mr Timson lifted the lid of the little steel-bound chest and thrust in a fat hand, feeling about in all directions, as if chasing active coins into dark corners, for them to dodge through his fingers and escape again. His face was quite a study as he poked about, and at length he drew forth his hand, looked at it on both sides, and declared that there was nothing more.
“Tut, tut, tut!—how strange! Why I felt sure that I put in a sovereign myself. It must have been last time; and yet I felt so sure, and—and—yes—to be sure! here it is, ‘Sunday, 24th day, one pound!’ There!” he continued, triumphantly holding the pocket-book out to the churchwarden, “I knew I did; and yet there’s nothing here but silver and copper. Are you sure that you felt well, Mr Timson?”
“Feel again,” said the latter, good-temperedly; and again the fat hand went to work, and the face looked more solid, but without success.
“Must have been in the other box,” he said at last. The vicar brightened up at this, and they crossed the church to the north door, but from the scraps of conversation Jared Pellett could hear from the organ-loft, it was evident that the quest was without result. Through waiting for the boy, Jared soon dropped into one of his dreamy moods, and became forgetful of things external, until the tardy Ichabod arrived, out of breath, as if he had been exerting himself strenuously to get to the church in time, when the edifice was soon resounding with strains which drowned the rattling of keys and snapping of locks, as well as the conversation of vicar and churchwarden upon the subject of the missing money; but for all that the conversation went on.
“There might have been a great deal taken,” said the vicar.
“Heaps,” acquiesced Mr Timson.
“For, of course,” said Mr Gray, “this is an exceptional time; and in other instances I doubt whether I should be able to miss anything.”