“What led to the discovery, Peters?”
“The fact of not having been able to find the key of my skeleton case, though I searched high and low.”
“The same in which Falcon hid himself when Warner paid you a visit?”
“Yes, the identical one, and, worse luck, my cash box was inside. I never gave it a thought when I put the rascal there. Well, the villain’s sharp eyes must have ‘spotted’ it, for it has disappeared. What a plausible devil the fellow is to be sure—so fair spoken, and, egad! even liberal at times. I don’t wonder that he entertained some ideas about aerial flight.”
“You must excuse my laughing, doctor.”
“You may well do so, squire, though to me it is no laughing matter, I can assure you, for I had drawn out of the bank some years’ savings to entrust him with, as you had done with your capital, but I hung fire in letting him have mine for a while; in fact, I had only handed it over a day before the balloonists arrived.”
“What made you do so, Peters?”
“Why, your own great faith in him before the real and unexpected aerial visitors came.”
“But afterwards you believed in him, doctor?”
“I defended Falcon in his absence, but, while doing so, I never supposed that he had robbed you and me too. But, alas, when I could not find the key of my skeleton case, I broke it open and found that I had been plundered, and, without doubt, by those rascals after they had shot at Mr Goodall and entered your library.”