“Has Gordon done so?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Is there any time during business hours, Mr. Beckwith, that Pauline Perrot could have removed the bonds and securities without being seen?”
“Possibly.”
“At what time?”
“When I and some of the other clerks were out to dinner. Mr. Gordon always was here at that time. No one in the outer office would have thought it strange if Miss Perrot went into the vault. It would have been inferred that Mr. Gordon had sent her. I don’t see, nevertheless, how she could possibly have concealed the packages.”
“Pockets in her underskirts,” Chick said tersely. “That would have been child’s play. I suspect, Mr. Beckwith, that that is how the theft was committed.”
“But the cash——”
“That’s another matter,” Chick interrupted. “She may have found a chance to slip into the vault and get it before she and Gordon left there yesterday afternoon. How much cash is missing?”
“Two thousand dollars. It was in notes of large denomination, and in packages confined with paper straps.”