第 7 页

stock-book for my own satisfaction."

"Bless me, lad, why have you taken all that trouble? This accounts,

then, for your writing so long at night, for which my dame has been

quarrelling with you!"

"It was interesting work," Cyril said quietly. "Now, you see, sir,"

he went on, opening the big ledger, "here are the separate accounts

under each head. These pages, you see, are for heavy cables for

hawsers; of these, at the date of the last stock-taking, there were,

according to the book you handed to me, five hundred fathoms in

stock. These are the amounts you have purchased since. Now, upon the

other side are all the sales of this cable entered in the sales-book.

Adding them together, and deducting them from the other side, you

will see there should remain in stock four hundred and fifty fathoms.

According to the new stock-taking there are four hundred and

thirty-eight. That is, I take it, as near as you could expect to get,

for, in the measuring out of so many thousand fathoms of cable during

the fifteen months between the two stock-takings, there may well have

been a loss of the twelve fathoms in giving good measurement."

"That is so," Captain Dave said. "I always say to John Wilkes, 'Give

good measurement, John--better a little over than a little under.'

Nothing can be clearer or more satisfactory."

Cyril closed the book.

"I am sorry to say, Captain Dave, all the items are not so

satisfactory, and that I greatly fear that you have been robbed to a

considerable amount."

"Robbed, lad!" the Captain said, starting up from his chair. "Who

should rob me? Not John Wilkes, I can be sworn! Not the two

apprentices for a surety, for they never go out during the day, and

John keeps a sharp look-out upon them, and the entrance to the shop

is always locked and barred after work is over, so that none can

enter without getting the key, which, as you know, John always brings

up and hands to me as soon as he has fastened the door! You are

mistaken, lad, and although I know that your intentions are good, you

should be careful how you make a charge that might bring ruin to

innocent men. Carelessness there may be; but robbery! No; assuredly

not."

"I have not brought the charge without warrant, Captain Dave," Cyril

said gravely, "and if you will bear with me for a few minutes, I

think you will see that there is at least something that wants

looking into."

"Well, it is only fair after the trouble you have taken, lad, that I

should hear what you have to say; but it will need strong evidence

indeed to make me believe that there has been foul play."

"Well, sir," Cyril said, opening the ledger again, "in the first

place, I would point out that in all the heavy articles, such as

could not conveniently be carried away, the tally of the stock-takers

corresponds closely with the figures in this book. In best bower

anchors the figures are absolutely the same and, as you have seen, in

heavy cables they closely correspond. In the large ship's compasses,

the ship's boilers, and ship's galleys, the numbers tally exactly. So

it is with all the heavy articles; the main blocks are correct, and

all other heavy gear. This shows that John Wilkes's book is carefully

kept, and it would be strange indeed if heavy goods had all been

properly entered, and light ones omitted; but yet when we turn to

small articles, we find that there is a great discrepancy between the

figures. Here is the account, for instance, of the half-inch rope.

According to my ledger, there should be eighteen hundred fathoms in

stock, whereas the stock-takers found but three hundred and eighty.

In two-inch rope there is a deficiency of two hundred and thirty

fathoms, in one-inch rope of six hundred and twenty. These sizes, as

you know, are always in requisition, and a thief would find ready

purchasers for a coil of any of them. But, as might be expected, it

is in copper that the deficiency is most serious. Of fourteen-inch

bolts, eighty-two are short, of twelve-inch bolts a hundred and

thirty, of eight-inch three hundred and nine; and so on throughout

almost all the copper stores. According to your expenditure and

receipt-book, Captain Dave, you have made, in the last fifteen

months, twelve hundred and thirty pounds; but according to this book

your stock is less in value, by two thousand and thirty-four pounds,

than it should have been. You are, therefore, a poorer man than you

were at the beginning of this fifteen months' trading, by eight

hundred and four pounds."

Captain Dave sat down in his chair, breathing hard. He took out his

handkerchief and wiped the drops of perspiration from his forehead.

"Are you sure of this, boy?" he said hoarsely. "Are you sure that you

have made no mistake in your figures?"

"Quite sure," Cyril said firmly. "In all cases in which I have found

deficiencies I have gone through the books three times and compared

the figures, and I am sure that if you put the books into the hands

of any city accountant, he will bear out my figures."

For a time Captain Dave sat silent.

"Hast any idea," he said at last, "how this has come about?"

"I have none," Cyril replied. "That John Wilkes is not concerned in

it I am as sure as you are; and, thinking the matter over, I see not

how the apprentices could have carried off so many articles, some

heavy and some bulky, when they left the shop in the evening, without

John Wilkes noticing them. So sure am I, that my advice would be that

you should take John Wilkes into your confidence, and tell him how

matters stand. My only objection to that is that he is a hasty man,

and that I fear he would not be able to keep his countenance, so that

the apprentices would remark that something was wrong. I am far from

saying that they have any hand in it; it would be a grievous wrong to

them to have suspicions when there is no shadow of evidence against

them; but at any rate, if this matter is to be stopped and the

thieves detected, it is most important that they should have, if they

are guilty, no suspicion that they are in any way being watched, or

that these deficiencies have been discovered. If they have had a hand

in the matter they most assuredly had accomplices, for such goods

could not be disposed of by an apprentice to any dealer without his

being sure that they must have been stolen."

"You are right there, lad--quite right. Did John Wilkes know that I

had been robbed in this way he would get into a fury, and no words

could restrain him from falling upon the apprentices and beating them

till he got some of the truth out of them."

"They may be quite innocent," Cyril said. "It may be that the thieves

have discovered some mode of entry into the store either by opening

the shutters at the back, or by loosening a board, or even by delving

up under the ground. It is surely easier to believe this than that

the boys can have contrived to carry off so large a quantity of goods

under John Wilkes's eye."

"That is so, lad. I have never liked Robert Ashford, but God forbid

that I should suspect him of such crime only because his forehead is

as wrinkled as an ape's, and Providence has set his eyes crossways in

his head. You cannot always judge a ship by her upper works; she may

be ugly to the eye and yet have a clear run under water. Still, you

can't help going by what you see. I agree with you that if we tell

John Wilkes about this, those boys will know five minutes afterwards

that the ship is on fire; but if we don't tell him, how are we to get

to the bottom of what is going on?"

"That is a difficult question, but a few days will not make much

difference, when we know that it has been going on for over a year,

and may, for aught we know, have been going on much longer. The first

thing, Captain Dave, is to send these books to an accountant, for him

to go through them and check my figures."

"There is no need for that, lad. I know how careful you are, and you

cannot have gone so far wrong as all this."

"No, sir, I am sure that there is no mistake; but, for your own sake

as well as mine, it were well that you should have the signature of

an accountant to the correctness of the books. If you have to lay the

matter before the magistrates, they would not take my testimony as to

your losses, and might even say that you were rash in acting upon the

word of a boy like myself, and you might then be obliged to have the

accounts made up anew, which would cost you more, and cause much

delay in the process; whereas, if you put in your books and say that

their correctness is vouched for by an accountant, no question would

arise on it; nor would there be any delay now, for while the books

are being gone into, we can be trying to get to the bottom of the

matter here."

"Ay, ay, it shall be done, Master Cyril, as you say. But for the life

of me I don't see how we are to get at the bottom of the ship to find

out where she is leaking!"

"It seems to me that the first thing, Captain Dave, is to see to the

warehouse. As we agreed that the apprentices cannot have carried out

all these goods under John Wilkes's eye, and cannot have come down

night after night through the house, the warehouse must have been

entered from without. As I never go in there, it would be best that

you should see to this matter yourself. There are the fastenings of

the shutters in the first place, then the boardings all round. As for

me, I will look round outside. The window of my room looks into the

street, but if you will take me to one of the rooms at the back we

can look at the surroundings of the yard, and may gather some idea

whether the goods can have been passed over into any of the houses

abutting on it, or, as is more likely, into the lane that runs up by

its side."

The Captain led the way into one of the rooms at the back of the

house, and opening the casement, he and Cyril leaned out. The store

occupied fully half the yard, the rest being occupied by anchors,

piles of iron, ballast, etc. There were two or three score of guns of

various sizes piled on each other. A large store of cannon-ball was

ranged in a great pyramid close by. A wall some ten feet high

separated the yard from the lane Cyril had spoken of. On the left,

adjoining the warehouse, was the yard of the next shop, which

belonged to a wool-stapler. Behind were the backs of a number of

small houses crowded in between Tower Street and Leadenhall Street.

"I suppose you do not know who lives in those houses, Captain Dave?"

"No, indeed. The land is not like the sea. Afloat, when one sees a

sail, one wonders what is her nationality, and whither she is bound,

and still more whether she is an honest trader or a rascally pirate;

but here on land, one scarcely gives a thought as to who may dwell in

the houses round."

"I will walk round presently," Cyril said, "and gather, as far as I

can, who they are that live there; but, as I have said, I fancy it is

over that wall and into the alley that your goods have departed. The

apprentices' room is this side of the house, is it not?"

"Yes; John Wilkes sleeps in the room next to yours, and the door

opposite to his is that of the lads' room."

"Do the windows of any of the rooms look into that lane?"

"No; it is a blank wall on that side."

"There is the clock striking nine," Cyril said, starting. "It is time

for me to be off. Then you will take the books to-day, Captain Dave?"

"I will carry them off at once, and when I return will look narrowly

into the fastenings of the two windows and door from the warehouse

into the yard; and will take care to do so when the boys are engaged

in the front shop."

When his work was done, Cyril went round to the houses behind the

yard, and he found that they stood in a small court, with three or

four trees growing in the centre, and were evidently inhabited by

respectable citizens. Over the door of one was painted, "Joshua

Heddings, Attorney"; next to him was Gilbert Gushing, who dealt in

jewels, silks, and other precious commodities from the East; next to

him was a doctor, and beyond a dealer in spices. This was enough to

assure him that it was not through such houses as these that the

goods had been carried.

Cyril had not been back at the mid-day meal, for his work that day

lay up by Holborn Bar, where he had two customers whom he attended

with but half an hour's interval between the visits, and on the days

on which he went there he was accustomed to get something to eat at a

tavern hard by.

Supper was an unusually quiet meal. Captain Dave now and then asked

John Wilkes a question as to the business matters of the day, but

evidently spoke with an effort. Nellie rattled on as usual; but the

burden of keeping up the conversation lay entirely on her shoulders

and those of Cyril. After the apprentices had left, and John Wilkes

had started for his usual resort, the Captain lit his pipe. Nellie

signed to Cyril to come and seat himself by her in the window that

projected out over the street, and enabled the occupants of the seats

at either side to have a view up and down it.

"What have you been doing to father, Cyril?" she asked, in low tones;

"he has been quite unlike himself all day. Generally when he is out

of temper he rates everyone heartily, as if we were a mutinous crew,

but to-day he has gone about scarcely speaking; he hasn't said a

cross word to any of us, but several times when I spoke to him I got

no answer, and it is easy to see that he is terribly put out about

something. He was in his usual spirits at breakfast; then, you know,

he was talking with you for an hour, and it does not take much

guessing to see that it must have been something that passed between