“Well, sir?”
“Well, sir? Half of them are not there. They’re dummies tied up and docketed.”
“But the real deeds?”
“Pledged for advances in all sorts of quarters. Money raised upon them at a dozen banks, perhaps, in town.”
“But—I don’t understand you, Thickens; you do not mean that you—”
“That I, Mr Bayle!” cried the clerk passionately. “Shame upon you!—do you think I could be such a scoundrel—such a thief?”
“But these deeds, and this scrip, what are they all?”
“Valuable securities placed in Dixons’ hands for safety.”
“And they are gone?”
“To an enormous amount.”