"All gone, every farthing—with Mr. Messenger's private papers."
"What a strange thing!"
"No one saw anybody going into the office or coming out. Nothing else was taken."
"Come—with fourteen thousand pounds in his hand, no reasonable thief would ask for more."
"And what is more extraordinary still, not one of those notes has ever since been presented for payment."
"And then, I suppose, there was a row."
Josephus assented.
"First, I was to be sacked at once; then I was to be watched and searched; next, I was to be kept on until the notes were presented and the thief caught. I have been kept on, the notes have not been presented; and I've had the same pay, neither more nor less, all the time. That's all the story. Now, there's to be an end of that. I'm to be sent away."
Mr. Maliphant had not been listening to the story at all, being pleasantly occupied with his own reminiscences. At this point one of them made him laugh and rub his hands.