“But who is there left, Tom?” chimed in Mrs. Hobbs. “If the people in the house are not to be suspected, and the man did not kill himself, it must have been some one outside.”
“So I think. This is why I called at Mr. Booth’s Sydney office and interviewed his clerk. This young man’s story, as published, ran so pat I did not half like the look of it. In the first place, supposing him to be guilty, his story is such as a specious scoundrel would invent. The fact that three weeks ago he knew that thousands of pounds worth of securities were in the safe, while at the date of the robbery there was only a few hundreds in cash, looks a plausible enough suggestion till you come to examine it.
“What were these securities? Were they inscribed stock, mortgage deeds, or bonds? If so, however valuable to the owner they might have been, they would be quite useless to a thief. Cash, on the other hand, is useful to anybody, and there is nothing to show that the cash in the safe at this particular time was not as large as it had ever been. On the other hand, supposing David Israel to be the criminal, or cognisant of the crime, it is hard to understand why an apparently useless murder of great danger and difficulty was added to the comparatively easy crime of theft. Certainly the safe must have been opened by a strange key. Why, having the key, should the robber trouble himself about the life of Mr. Booth? Clearly, if there was any connection between the two crimes there must have been some other motive besides that of robbery.
“These were the thoughts in my mind when I questioned the clerk. He is a glib young man, very dapper in his dress, very voluble in talk, and this is what he said in answer to my questions—He was still carrying on the business, not opening any fresh accounts, but simply paying and receiving cash as it became due. In this he was acting according to instructions from Mrs. Booth, who desired that all her husband’s engagements should be honourably met. He had been in the employ of the late Mr. Booth for the past six months, his duty being to keep all the accounts and the books, Mr. Booth being a poor scholar. The business had been very profitable, no doubt of that, and, besides, his master had had a great run of luck. He could not remember such a run of ‘skinners’ as Booth had had lately. I asked him what a skinner was.
“He said it was a day that was bad for the public; when they were skinned, in fact. As he kept all the accounts, I asked him if he could tell me more exactly by referring to them, how much money had been left in the safe on Saturday. Israel seemed to me to hesitate a little; perhaps it was only my fancy, for he very quickly gave me a total—£374 10s.
“‘This is larger,’ I suggested, ‘than the amount that you first stated.’
“‘Yes, it is,’ he said; ‘but I then spoke hurriedly, without reference to the accounts.’
“‘Was it usual,’ I asked, ‘to have so much loose money?’
“‘Oh, yes,’ he answered, very sharply, ‘we often had a couple of hundred; but Saturday was a busy day, and there might have been a little extra.’
“‘As a matter of fact,’ I inquired, ‘is not this the first time in your experience that such a large sum in cash has been locked up in the safe?’