“They got little for all their pains,” he said, loud enough for the police officials and a couple of reporters to overhear. “Only about five thousand dollars, all told.”
A look of relief overspread the faces of the president and the two directors who were present.
The next moment the president, directors and the cashier stepped into the president’s private office.
There the cashier acknowledged that he had made a misstatement.
Instead of taking five thousand dollars, the thieves had decamped with seventy-five thousand dollars.
“We’re a comparatively small and provincial institution,” said the president, slowly, after a brief interval of silence, “and this loss will spell ruin for us unless——” He hesitated.
“Unless what?” asked one of the directors, huskily, mopping the sweat from his forehead.
“Unless we can recover the money before it is generally known that the cashier made a willful misstatement.”
“The police of this town can never do it,” asserted the other director.
“Shall we go down in our pockets and pay out a good big fee to a man who might be able to save us?” inquired the president.