l
of taper left, when, in the next moment, he was out of the house. But
Losely would not have gone out of the house; nor was he, nor any one
about the premises, ever known to make use of that kind of taper, which
would rather appertain to the fashionable fopperies of a London dandy.
You will have observed, too, the valet had not seen the thief's face.
His testimony rested solely on the colours of a cloak, which, on
cross-examination; might have gone for nothing. The dog had barked
before the light was seen. It was not the light that made him bark. He
wished to get out of the courtyard; that looked as if there were some
stranger in the grounds beyond. Following up this clue, the lawyer
ascertained that a strange man had been seen in the park towards the
grey of the evening, walking up in the direction of the house. And here
comes the strong point. At the railway station, about five miles from
Mr. Gunston's, a strange man had arrived just in time to take his place
in the night-train from the north towards London, stopping there at
four o'clock in the morning. The station-master remembered the stranger
buying the ticket, but did not remark his appearance. The porter did,
however, so far notice him as he hurried into a first-class carriage,
that he said afterwards to the stationmaster: 'Why, that gentleman has
a grey cloak just like Mr. Losely's. If he had not been thinner and
taller, I should have thought it was Mr. Losely.' Well, Losely went to
the same station the next morning, taking an early train, going thither
on foot, with his carpet-bag in his hand; and both the porter and
station-master declared that he had no cloak on him at the time; and as
he got into a second-class carriage, the porter even said to him: ''Tis
a sharp morning, sir; I'm afraid you'll be cold.' Furthermore, as to the
purpose for which Losely had wished to borrow of the money-lender,
his brother-in-law stated that Losely's son had been extravagant, had
contracted debts, and was even hiding from his creditors in a county
town, at which William Losely had stopped for a few hours on his way to
London. He knew the young man's employer had written kindly to Losely
several days before, lamenting the son's extravagance; intimating that
unless his debts were discharged he must lose the situation, in which
otherwise he might soon rise to competence, for that he was quick and
sharp; and that it was impossible not to feel indulgent towards him,
he was so live