six," was her conclusion.

"So do I, so we must both be correct," returned Miss Roscoe. "Now the
checks that Moira Thompson received at the second gate register
thirteen pounds seventeen shillings. How is it you are nine and
sixpence short?"

"Am I that much short?" cried Gwen. "It can't possibly be!"

"Look for yourself," said Miss Roscoe. "The checks are all numbered.
There are two hundred and fifty-one shilling admissions and fifty-two
sixpenny ones. Examine the numbers on the rolls of checks left in your
satchel; you will see they begin at Nos. 252 and 53. That means that
you certainly issued 251 checks at a shilling and 52 at sixpence. The
right amount ought to have been in your bag."

"Is there nothing left stuck in the corners?" asked Gwen, utterly
dumbfounded at the defalcation.

"Nothing whatever. Look and satisfy yourself."

Gwen seized the satchel, and almost turned it inside out in her
eagerness, but there was no remaining coin to be found.

"Did you give any people checks without receiving the money in
return?" enquired Miss Roscoe.

"No, certainly not. I was most particular. I didn't let anybody in
without paying. If they had no tickets I sold them checks. I don't see
how I can be all that amount wrong."

"Unfortunately both our reckonings show the same deficit. What I want
to know, Gwen, is what has become of this missing nine and sixpence?"

"I can't imagine."

"But it is your duty to account for it. You alone are responsible; and
it is my duty to enquire where it has gone."

"Miss Roscoe! You surely don't think I've pocketed it?" broke out
Gwen, the drift of the Principal's remarks suddenly dawning upon her.

"I say nothing except that it is a very strange circumstance that you
cannot produce it. Was the satchel in your own possession the whole of
the afternoon?"

"Yes--at least--yes, it was!" stammered Gwen, looking very red and
confused. The remembrance had just struck her that she had allowed
Lesbia to take some change from her bag, and at the same instant
Lesbia's extraordinary behaviour of the evening before flashed across
her mind. Could there possibly be any connection between the two
incidents? The idea was so horrible that she blushed at entertaining
it even for a moment.

Miss Roscoe glanced at her keenly.

"Do you assume the full responsibility for this?" she asked in a
strained voice.

"Absolutely. Nobody except myself had anything to do with the gate
money."

The Pr