cts--his
employer had acted with fine, wise discrimination.

XLII

Crane returned to New York, his mind working smoothly to the hum of the
busy wheels beneath his coach.

This degrading humiliation of his rival must certainly be turned to
account. With Allis Porter still believing in Mortimer's innocence the
gain to him was very little; he must bring the crime absolutely home to
the accused man, but in a manner not savoring of persecution, else
the girl's present friendly regard would be turned into abhorrence. In
addition to this motive he felt an inclination to probe the matter
to its utmost depths. It was not his nature to leave anything
to conjecture; in all his transactions each link in the chain of
preparation for execution was welded whole. He felt that it would be
but a matter of manipulation to environ Mortimer completely with the
elements of his folly. He firmly believed him guilty; Allis, misled by
her infatuation, mentally attributed the peculation to her brother.

The Banker would go quietly to work and settle this point beyond
dispute. He might have hesitated, leaving well enough alone, had he been
possessed of any doubts as to the ultimate results of his investigation,
but he wasn't. He reasoned that Mortimer had taken the thousand-dollar
note thinking to win three or four thousand at least over his horse, The
Dutchman, and then replace the abstracted money. Crane was aware that
Alan Porter had told Mortimer of The Dutchman's almost certain prospect
of winning; in fact, the boy had suggested that Mortimer had taken it
for this purpose. Mortimer would not have changed the note; would have
taken it straight to the race course. He must have lost it to some
bookmaker over The Dutchman. Crane knew the number of the stolen note.
The three one-thousand-dollar bills were new, running in consecutive
numbers, B 67,482-83-84; he had noticed that quite by chance at the
time; it was the middle one, B 67,483, that was missing. So he had a
possible means of identifying the man who had taken the money. Mentally
he followed Mortimer during the day at Gravesend. From Alan he knew of
his winnings over Lauzanne.

Crane reasoned that Mortimer, having risked the thousand on his horse,
had been told that Lauzanne might win. This had perhaps frightened him,
and being unfamiliar with the folly of such a course had backed two
horses in the same race--had put a hundred on Lauzanne at ten to one to
cover his risk on Th