anwhile, and
once, at a quiet interval, when Bommaney had sunk into his former
stupor, venturing to steal a hand to the pocket in which the stolen
money lay, caressing the edges of the notes with the tips of his
fingers.

'I'm sure,' said Bommaney, as the cab pulled up at the gate of the
quadrangle, 'that we shall find them here.' He spoke with a tremulous
uncertainty, and so obviously appealed for a confirmation of his hope,
that Barter felt constrained to answer,

'Oh, we are bound to find them.'

The striking of a wax vesta at the door of the chambers, the shaky hunt
for the key, the well-known obstinacy of the lock, the opening of
the door, the fevered working of Bommaney's fingers, and the flushed
eagerness of his face, were all memorable to young Barter for many and
many a day. They entered together the room in which their interview had
taken place; and Barter, nursing the remnant of the flaming vesta, lit
the gas with it, and then, dropping it on the floor, set his foot upon
it, and looked at his companion.

'Where do you think you left the notes, sir?' he asked. 'Have you any
idea? I think you took out some papers here. You wanted to consult my
father about them, I fancy, and, if I remember, you returned them to
your pocket.'

Bommaney stood looking about him on the floor, trailing the point of
his walking-cane purposelessly hither and thither; and it was at this
moment, seeing how confused and broken his victim seemed, that young Mr.
Barter tasted the first flavour of safety.

'I don't see anything,' he said.

'Did you,' Bommaney asked him, with both trembling hands grasping the
knob of his walking-cane, and shaking in appeal before the unsuspected
thief--' did you lock any papers away before you left?'

As a matter of fact, young Barter had not had any papers to lock away
that evening after Bommaney's departure; but he thought the trick worth
playing, and, producing his keys again, opened the heavy iron safe which
stood against the wall.

'Yes,' he said, with an air of hopeful alacrity. 'By Jove, I did!' He
stood aside, with an outstretched hand, and motioned Bommaney to examine
the contents of the safe. There was a parchment there, there were half
a dozen bundles of documents tied in pink tape and docketed; but there
were no bank-notes.

'You know,' said Bommaney, with a fretful wail, 'I must have left them
here; I couldn't have left them anywhere else. I put it to you--could
I?'

Barter looke