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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
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