[“That’s funny,” he murmured], turning over the scanty contents of the drawer. Finally he pulled everything out. The little box was certainly not there! He shook each garment and put it back hurriedly and agitatedly, and still no box came to light. He looked searchingly about the room, on the table, on the bureau, even on the floor. Then he went through the other drawers, tossing their contents about anxiously. Finally, at a loss, he stopped and, plunging his hands into his pockets, frowned at the floor.
“I had it out last night,” he recalled. “I made change for Tommy Lingard. But I didn’t take it away from the bureau and I remember putting it right back again. At least, I’m almost sure. I suppose I might have dropped it in my pocket. But I had these clothes on—” He ransacked his pockets, but without success. Then: “It must be here,” he muttered, and once more he searched the second drawer in the bureau, again taking everything out and shaking it thoroughly. But there was no box and no six dollars and a quarter! It was certainly puzzling! To make certain that he had not put the contents of the box in his pocket, he turned his pockets inside-out. Sixteen cents, mostly in coppers, that crumpled dollar bill that Lingard had given him, a knife, a bone button that belonged on his overcoat and a skate key emerged from his trousers. His waistcoat yielded his memorandum-book and a leather case containing a fountain pen and two pencils. From his coat he extracted a handkerchief, a small roll of lead wire, the inch-long remains of a third pencil, a letter from his mother which had reached him that morning and the end of a roll of adhesive tape. That was all. He restored the articles to his pockets, all save the letter and the button, and sank dejectedly into the dilapidated arm-chair.
At that moment footsteps came along the hall and Arnold called: “Are you there, Toby?”
“Yes,” was the dismal response. “Come on in.”
“It’s nearly twenty minutes past eleven—” began Arn, appearing in the doorway. Then he caught sight of Toby’s dejected countenance and stopped. “Hello, what’s the matter, Toby?”
“I can’t find my money.”
“Can’t find it? Where was it?”
“In the bureau drawer. It was in a little box and I hid it under some things there. And now it’s gone!”