"Great Scott! man, even a human adding machine has a right to take a little rest now and then. If you must know, I've been getting a shave and a haircut. Anything criminal in that?"
"Can't say that there is," and Todd relaxed enough to smile at his vehemence. "But there is in this," unrolling the parcel that he still held and presenting several large sheets of ruled paper for the examiner's attention. "Recognise them?"
"They appear to be loose leaves from the ledgers at the Central Trust Company."
"Precisely. Were they there when you went over the books this morning?"
"I don't recall them, but it's possible they may have been."
"No—they weren't. One of the bookkeepers mailed them to himself, at his home address, while you were still at the First National. If I hadn't visited his house this afternoon, in the guise of a book agent, and taken a long chance by lifting this roll of paper, he'd have slipped them back in place in the morning and nobody'd been any the wiser."
"Then you mean that the bookkeeper is responsible for falsifying the accounts?"
"Only partially. Was the cash O. K. at the Central Trust?"
"Perfectly."
"Do you recall any record of a check for one hundred and fifty thousand dollars upon the State National drawn and cashed this morning?"