He came in panting with his hurried descent from the fifth story, his
face flushed and his eyes rolling, but without any of the secret
perturbation Bertram had observed in them on a former occasion. "He
cannot help us," was the thought that darkened the young man's brow as
his eyes left the janitor, and faltering towards his uncle, fell upon
the table before him.

Everything was reflected in the mirror.

"Well, Hopgood, I have a few questions to put to you this morning," said
Mr. Sylvester in a restrained, but not unkindly tone.

The worthy man bowed, bestowed a salutatory roll of his eyes on Mr.
Stuyvesant, and stood deferentially waiting.

"No, he cannot help us," was again Bertram's thought, and again his eyes
faltered to his uncle's face, and again fell anxiously before him.

"It has not been my habit to trouble you with inquiries about your
management of matters under your charge," continued Mr. Sylvester,
stopping till the janitor's wandering eyes settled upon his own. "Your
conduct has always been exemplary, and your attention to duty
satisfactory; but I would like to ask you to-day if you have observed
anything amiss with the vaults of late? anything wrong about the boxes
kept there? anything in short, that excited your suspicion or caused you
to ask yourself if everything was as it should be?"

The janitor's ruddy face grew pale, and his eye fell with startled
inquiry on Mr. Harrington's box that still occupied the centre of the
table. "No, sir," he emphatically replied, "has anything--"

But Mr. Sylvester did not wait to be questioned. "You have attended to
your duties as promptly and conscientiously as usual; you have allowed
no one to go to the vaults day or night, who had no business there? You
have not relaxed your accustomed vigilance, or left the bank alone at
any time during the hours it is under your charge?"

"No sir, not for a minute, sir; that is--" He stopped and his eye
wandered towards Mr. Stuyvesant. "Never for a minute, sir," he went on,
"without I knew some one was in the bank, who was capable of looking
after it."

"The watchman has been at his post every night up to the usual hour?"

"Yes sir."

"There has been no carelessness in closing the vault doors after the
departure of the clerks?"

"No sir."

"And no trouble," he continued, with a shade more of dignity, possibly
because Hopgood's tell-tale face was beginning to show signs of anxious
confusion, "and no trouble in o