“Why, no.”
“Think again.”
Burton hesitated. “Oh, yes,” he said at length, “I did. When I came to the door I couldn’t find my keys.”
“Do you identify those?” asked Gardiner, holding up a ring having several keys attached.
“They are mine. Where did you get them?”
“In the safe!”
“Impossible!”
“Unfortunately not. They hung in the lock of the cash compartment. Burton, whoever took that money used those keys!”
The young man looked at his employer as though his eyes would pierce him through. “Gardiner,” he said, in a hard, cold voice that seemed to be coming from the depths of some terrible emotion, “do you accuse me of this?”
It was the first time he had ever omitted the mister in addressing his employer. He was speaking now as man to man.