ll fell upon the first bundle almost as a dog falls upon a bone;
and now he snatched eagerly at each successive paper or bundle, till
Hewitt raked the grating with his stick, and declared that there were no
more. "Is that all?" he asked.

Mr. Bell went tremblingly from paper to paper, and, at last, said that
he believed it really was. "I can verify it by the list upstairs," he
added, "if you are sure there are no more."

"No more," repeated Hewitt, rattling his stick in the ventilator again.
"Let us go and verify, by all means."

We sent the puzzled housekeeper away, and returned to the office above,
and presently Mr. Bell, now beginning so far to recover from his
amazement as to express incoherent gratitude, reported that the bonds
were correct and complete to the last and least.

"Very well," said Hewitt, "then my part of the business is done, though
I must say I've had luck, or rather, Brett has had it for me. But the
police must come on now. I think, Mr. Bell, we'll go along to Scotland
Yard when we leave here. They'll be wanting to see Mr. Catherton Hunt, I
expect, whoever he is--and somebody in your office, too, if I'm not
sadly mistaken."

"Who?" gasped Mr. Bell.

"That, perhaps, you can help to point out. See here--do you know whose
figures they are?" and Hewitt produced the small slip of paper
containing the cypher.

"They're very small," remarked Mr. Bell, putting on his glasses; "very
small indeed; but I think--why they're Henning's, I do believe!"

"Ah! one or two other little things seemed to point that way. Henning is
your correspondence clerk, I believe, and I expect this thin little slip
is a specimen of your typewriter paper. Have you any of his written
figures for comparison?"

"Well no--I hardly think--you see he typewrites his letters, and
although I know his writing very well I can't at the moment put my hand
on any figures of his."

"Never mind--it's mere matter of curiosity; the police will ask him
questions in the morning. What _I_ believe has happened is this. Our
friend Henning--if he's the man--has a friend outside a great deal
cleverer than himself--though he would seem to have his share of
cunning, too. Between them they resolved to rob you in the way they have
done--temporarily. Henning was to take advantage of his position in that
little inner room to get at the safe some day when it was open and when
you were engaged in your own private inner room with a client, so
leaving th