re that. A likely thing burglars coming at twelve o'clock
at night, isn't it? And I'll tell ye summat else. Them burglars was
copped last night at Knype at eleven o'clock when th' pubs closed, if
ye want to know--the whole gang of three on 'em."

"Then what about that burglary last night down the Lane?" Rachel asked
sharply.

"Oh!" exclaimed Louis. "Was there a burglary down the Lane last night?
I didn't know that."

"No, there wasn't," said Batchgrew ruthlessly. "That burglary was a
practical joke, and it's all over the town. Denry Machin had a hand in
that affair, and by now I dare say he wishes he hadn't."

"Still, Mr. Batchgrew," Louis argued superiorly, with the philosophic
impartiality of a man well accustomed to the calm unravelling of
crime, "there may be other burglars in the land beside just those
three." He would not willingly allow the theory of burglars to
crumble. Its attractiveness increased every moment.

"There may and there mayn't, young Fores," said Thomas Batchgrew. "Did
_you_ hear anything of 'em?"

"No, I didn't," Louis replied restively.

"And yet you ought to have been listening out for 'em."

"Why ought I to have been listening out for them?"

"Knowing there was all that money in th' house."

"Mr. Fores didn't know," said Rachel.

Louis felt himself unjustly smirched.

"It's scarcely an hour ago," said he, "that I heard about this money
for the first time." And he felt as innocent and aggrieved as he
looked.

Mr. Batchgrew smacked his lips loudly.

"Then," he announced, "I'm going down to th' police-station, to put it
i' Snow's hands."

Rachel straightened herself.

"But surely not without telling Mrs. Maldon?"

Mr. Batchgrew fingered his immense whiskers.

"Is she better?" he inquired threateningly. This was his first sign of
interest in Mrs. Maldon's condition.

"Oh, yes; much. She's going on very well. The doctor's just been."

"Is she asleep?"

"She's resting. She may be asleep."

"Did ye tell her ye hadn't found her money?"

"Yes."

"What did she say?"

"She didn't say anything."

"It might be municipal money, for all she seems to care!" remarked
Thomas Batchgrew, with a short, bitter grin. "Well, I'll be moving to
th' police-station. I've never come across aught like this before, and
I'm going to get to the bottom of it."

Rachel slipped out of the door into the hall.

"Please wait a moment, Mr. Batchgrew," she whispered timidly.

"What for?"

"Til