"It was last night that it was stolen," Fortescue explained. "Stolen! and I—I was accused of being the thief; though I'd never touched it, never even looked at it."
"And your own savings," pursued Silk. "Were they stolen, too?"
"No. That's where the whole complication came in," returned Charlie. "You see, Sam didn't know that I had any money of my own. He believed that I'd sent all that I saved home to my mother in England, and that I was really hard up, as I'd half pretended to be. And this morning, when he rushed into the house, wildly declaring that he'd been robbed, it was his belief that I was in want of money that made him so sure that I, and I alone, was the thief. No one else knew where the gold had been hidden. Who else could have taken it? He had heard me go downstairs in the middle of the night, and it was useless my protesting I'd only gone down to discover why the horses were restless in the stable, and why one of the dogs had barked.
"The more I protested, the more annoyed he grew. He was just mad with rage against me. He wouldn't listen to me when I asked him if it was likely that I, his future son-in-law, should steal money that was intended for my own sweetheart—money that was to go to the making of my own home. Nothing I could say would convince him. And at last he went so far as to demand that I should let him search my room and boxes, see?"
Charlie was anxiously watching Sergeant Silk's face as he spoke. But it betrayed no sign either of belief or of doubt.
"It wasn't until that moment that I realised how awkward was my situation," he went on. "I must have looked some guilty. I was certainly flustered. And very naturally; because, you see, my own money, my savings, which I kept upstairs in my trunk, happened also to be in English gold; and what was more suspicious and difficult to explain, it was the same in amount as the sum that had been stolen—two hundred pounds exactly; two hundred sovereigns. And I was supposed to be as poor as a church rat."
Sergeant Silk was puffing vigorously at his pipe, but he paused to say, very quietly—
"That was awkward, real awkward for you, Charlie. But, of course, you let him search your room? You didn't hide anything? You explained how you happened to have money of your own?"
"I hid nothing," declared Charlie. "But his finding and counting the money seemed to be the final proof of my guilt, and I wasn't able to show how any one else could be guilty."