第 8 页

you that has put him out. Now what was it?"

"I don't see why you should say that, Mistress Nellie. It is true we

did have a talk together, and he examined some fresh books I have

been making out and said that he was mightily pleased with my work. I

went away at nine o'clock, and something may have occurred to upset

him between that and dinner."

"All which means that you don't mean to tell me anything about it,

Master Cyril. Well, then, you may consider yourself in my black books

altogether," she said petulantly.

"I am sorry that you should say so," he said. "If it were true that

anything that I had said to him had ruffled him, it would be for him

to tell you, and not for me."

"Methinks I have treated Robert Ashford scurvily, and I shall take

him for my escort to see His Majesty attend service at St. Paul's

to-morrow."

Cyril smiled.

"I think it would be fair to give him a turn, Mistress, and I am glad

to see that you have such a kind thought."

Nellie rose indignantly, and taking her work sat down by the side of

her mother.

"It is a fine evening," Cyril said to Captain Dave, "and I think I

shall take a walk round. I shall return in an hour."

The Captain understood, by a glance Cyril gave him, that he was going

out for some purpose connected with the matter they had in hand.

"Ay, ay, lad," he said. "It is not good for you to be sitting moping

at home every evening. I have often wondered before that you did not

take a walk on deck before you turned in. I always used to do so

myself."

"I don't think there is any moping in it, Captain Dave," Cyril said,

with a laugh. "If you knew how pleasant the evenings have been to me

after the life I lived before, you would not say so."

Cyril's only object in going out, however, was to avoid the necessity

of having to talk with Dame Dowsett and Nellie. His thoughts were

running on nothing but the robbery, and he had found it very

difficult to talk in his usual manner, and to answer Nellie's

sprightly sallies. It was dark already. A few oil lamps gave a feeble

light here and there. At present he had formed no plan whatever of

detecting the thieves; he was as much puzzled as the Captain himself

as to how the goods could have been removed. It would be necessary,

of course, to watch the apprentices, but he did not think that

anything was likely to come out of this. It was the warehouse itself

that must be watched, in order to discover how the thieves made an

entry. His own idea was that they got over the wall by means of a

rope, and in some way managed to effect an entry into the warehouse.

The apprentices could hardly aid them unless they came down through

the house.

If they had managed to get a duplicate key of the door leading from

the bottom of the stairs to the shop, they could, of course, unbar

the windows, and pass things out--that part of the business would be

easy; but he could not believe that they would venture frequently to

pass down through the house. It was an old one, and the stairs

creaked. He himself was a light sleeper; he had got into the way of

waking at the slightest sound, from the long watches he had had for

his father's return, and felt sure that he should have heard them

open their door and steal along the passage past his room, however

quietly they might do it. He walked up the Exchange, then along

Cheapside as far as St. Paul's, and back. Quiet as it was in Thames

Street there was no lack of animation elsewhere. Apprentices were

generally allowed to go out for an hour after supper, the regulation

being that they returned to their homes by eight o'clock. Numbers of

these were about. A good many citizens were on their way home after

supping with friends. The city watch, with lanterns, patrolled the

streets, and not infrequently interfered in quarrels which broke out

among the apprentices. Cyril felt more solitary among the knots of

laughing, noisy lads than in the quiet streets, and was glad to be

home again. Captain Dave himself came down to open the door.

"I have just sent the women to bed," he said. "The two boys came in

five minutes ago. I thought you would not be long."

"I did not go out for anything particular," Cyril said; "but Mistress

Nellie insisted that there was something wrong with you, and that I

must know what it was about, so, feeling indeed indisposed to talk, I

thought it best to go out for a short time."

"Yes, yes. Women always want to know, lad. I have been long enough at

sea, you may be sure, to know that when anything is wrong, it is the

best thing to keep it from the passengers as long as you can."

"You took the books away this morning, Captain Dave?" Cyril asked as

they sat down.

"Ay, lad, I took them to Master Skinner, who bears as good a

reputation as any accountant in the city, and he promised to take

them in hand without loss of time; but I have been able to do nothing

here. John, or one or other of the boys, was always in the warehouse,

and I have had no opportunity of examining the door and shutters

closely. When the house is sound asleep we will take a lantern and go

down to look at them. I have been thinking that we must let John

Wilkes into this matter; it is too much to bear on my mind by myself.

He is my first mate, you see, and in time of danger, the first mate,

if he is worth anything, is the man the captain relies on for help."

"By all means tell him, then," Cyril said. "I can keep books, but I

have no experience in matters like this, and shall be very glad to

have his opinion and advice."

"There he is--half-past eight. He is as punctual as clockwork."

Cyril ran down and let John in.

"The Captain wants to speak to you," he said, "before you go up to

bed."

John, after carefully bolting the door, followed him upstairs.

"I have got some bad news for you, John. There, light your pipe

again, and sit down. My good dame has gone off to bed, and we have

got the cabin to ourselves."

John touched an imaginary hat and obeyed orders.

"The ship has sprung a bad leak, John. This lad here has found it

out, and it is well he did, for unless he had done so we should have

had her foundering under our feet without so much as suspecting

anything was going wrong."

The sailor took his newly-lighted pipe from between his lips and

stared at the Captain in astonishment.

"Yes, it is hard to believe, mate, but, by the Lord Harry, it is as I

say. There is a pirate about somewhere, and the books show that,

since the stock-taking fifteen months ago, he has eased the craft of

her goods to the tune of two thousand pounds and odd."

John Wilkes flung his pipe on to the table with such force that it

shivered into fragments.

"Dash my timbers!" he exclaimed. "Who is the man? You only give me

the orders, sir, and I am ready to range alongside and board him."

"That is what we have got to find out, John. That the goods have gone

is certain, but how they can have gone beats us altogether."

"Do you mean to say, Captain, that they have stolen them out of the

place under my eyes and me know nothing about it? It can't be, sir.

There must be some mistake. I know naught about figures, save enough

to put down the things I sell, but I don't believe as a thing has

gone out of the shop unbeknown to me. That yarn won't do for me,

sir," and he looked angrily at Cyril.

"It is true enough, John, for all that. The books have been balanced

up. We knew what was in stock fifteen months ago, and we knew from

your sale-book what has passed out of the shop, and from your

entry-book what has come in. We know now what there is remaining. We

find that in bulky goods, such as cables and anchors and ships'

boilers and suchlike, the accounts tally exactly, but in the small

rope, and above all in the copper, there is a big shrinkage. I will

read you the figures of some of them."

John's face grew longer and longer as he heard the totals read.

"Well, I'm jiggered!" he said, when the list was concluded. "I could

have sworn that the cargo was right according to the manifest. Well,

Captain, all I can say is, if that 'ere list be correct, the best

thing you can do is to send me adrift as a blind fool. I have kept my

tallies as correct as I could, and I thought I had marked down every

package that has left the ship, and here they must have been passing

out pretty nigh in cart-loads under my very eyes, and I knew nothing

about it."

"I don't blame you, John, more than I blame myself. I am generally

about on deck, and had no more idea that the cargo was being meddled

with than you had. I have been wrong in letting matters go on so long

without taking stock of them and seeing that it was all right; but I

never saw the need for it. This is what comes of taking to a trade

you know nothing about; we have just been like two children, thinking

that it was all plain and above board, and that we had nothing to do

but to sell our goods and to fill up again when the hold got empty.

Well, it is of no use talking over that part of the business. What we

have got to do is to find out this leak and stop it. We are pretty

well agreed, Cyril and me, that the things don't go out of the shop

by daylight. The question is, how do they go out at night?"

"I always lock up the hatches according to orders, Captain."

"Yes, I have no doubt you do, John; but maybe the fastenings have

been tampered with. The only way in which we see it can have been

managed is that someone has been in the habit of getting over the

wall between the yard and the lane, and then getting into the

warehouse somehow. It must have been done very often, for if the

things had been taken in considerable quantities you would have

noticed that the stock was short directly the next order came in. Now

I propose we light these two lanterns I have got here, and that we go

down and have a look round the hold."

Lighting the candles, they went downstairs. The Captain took out the

key and turned the lock. It grated loudly as he did so.

"That is a noisy lock," Cyril said.

"It wants oiling," John replied. "I have been thinking of doing it

for the last month, but it has always slipped out of my mind."

"At any rate," Cyril said, "it is certain that thieves could not have

got into the shop this way, for the noise would have been heard all

over the house."

The door between the shop and the warehouse was next unlocked. The

fastenings of the shutters and doors were first examined; there was

no sign of their having been tampered with. Each bolt and hasp was

tried, and the screws examined. Then they went round trying every one

of the stout planks that formed the side; all were firm and in good

condition.

"It beats me altogether," the Captain said, when they had finished

their examination. "The things cannot walk out of themselves; they

have got to be carried. But how the fellows who carry them get in is

more than I can say. There is nowhere else to look, is there, John?"

"Not that I can see, Captain."

They went to the door into the shop, and were about to close it, when

Cyril said,--

"Some of the things that are gone are generally kept in here,

Captain--the rope up to two inch, for example, and a good deal of

canvas, and most of the smaller copper fittings; so that, whoever the

thief is, he must have been in the habit of coming in here as well as

into the warehouse."

"That is so, lad. Perhaps they entered from this side."

"Will you hold the lantern here, John?" Cyril said.

The sailor held the lantern to the lock.

"There are no scratches nor signs of tools having been used here,"

Cyril said, examining both the lock and the door-post. "Whether the

thief came into the warehouse first, or not, he must have had a key."

The Captain nodded.

"Thieves generally carry a lot of keys with them, Cyril; and if one

does not quite fit they can file it until it does."

The shutters of the shop window and its fastenings, and those of the

door, were as secure as those of the warehouse, and, completely

puzzled, the party went upstairs again.

"There must be some way of getting in and out, although we can't find

it," Captain Dave said. "Things can't have gone off by themselves."

"It may be, Captain," John Wilkes said, "that some of the planks may

be loose."

"But we tried them all, John."

"Ay, they seem firm enough, but it may be that one of them is wedged

in, and that when the wedges are taken out it could be pulled off."

"I think you would have noticed it, John. If there was anything of

that sort it must be outside. However, we will take a good look round

the yard to-morrow. The warehouse is strongly built, and I don't

believe that any plank could be taken off and put back again, time

after time, without making a noise that would be heard in the house.

What do you think, Cyril?"

"I agree with you, Captain Dave. How the thieves make an entry I

can't imagine, but I don't believe that it is through the wall of the

warehouse. I am convinced that the robberies must have been very

frequent. Had a large amount been taken at a time, John Wilkes would

have been sure to notice it. Then, again, the thieves would not come

so often, and each time for a comparatively small amount of booty,

unless it could be managed without any serious risk or trouble.

However, now that we do know that they come, we shall have, I should

think, very little difficulty in finding out how it is done."

"You may warrant we will keep a sharp look-out," John Wilkes said

savagely. "If the Captain will give me the use of a room at the back