L5000 in gold and
notes of the bank money--that was, of course, on the assumption that Mr.
Ireland had no private money or valuables of his own in the safe.

"Mind you, at this point public sympathy was much stirred in favour of
the poor man who lay ill, perhaps dying, and yet whom, strangely
enough, suspicion had already slightly touched with its poisoned wing.

"Suspicion is a strong word, perhaps, to use at this point in the story.
No one suspected anybody at present. James Fairbairn had told his story,
and had vowed that some thief with false keys must have sneaked through
the house into the inner office.

"Public excitement, you will remember, lost nothing by waiting. Hardly
had we all had time to wonder over the night watchman's singular
evidence, and, pending further and fuller detail, to check our growing
sympathy for the man who was ill, than the sensational side of this
mysterious case culminated in one extraordinary, absolutely unexpected
fact. Mrs. Ireland, after a twenty-four hours' untiring watch beside her
husband's sick bed, had at last been approached by the detective, and
been asked to reply to a few simple questions, and thus help to throw
some light on the mystery which had caused Mr. Ireland's illness and her
own consequent anxiety.

"She professed herself quite ready to reply to any questions put to her,
and she literally astounded both inspector and detective when she firmly
and emphatically declared that James Fairbairn must have been dreaming
or asleep when he thought he saw her in the doorway at ten o'clock that
night, and fancied he heard her voice.

"She may or may not have been down in the hall at that particular hour,
for she usually ran down herself to see if the last post had brought any
letters, but most certainly she had neither seen nor spoken to Mr.
Ireland at that hour, for Mr. Ireland had gone out an hour before, she
herself having seen him to the front door. Never for a moment did she
swerve from this extraordinary statement. She spoke to James Fairbairn
in the presence of the detective, and told him he _must_ absolutely have
been mistaken, that she had _not_ seen Mr. Ireland, and that she had
_not_ spoken to him.

"One other person was questioned by the police, and that was Mr. Robert
Ireland, the manager's eldest son. It was presumed that he would know
something of his father's affairs; the idea having now taken firm hold
of the detective's mind that perhaps grave financial