"Was there a burglary down the Lane last night?
I didn't know that."
"No, there wasn't," said Batchgrew ruthlessly. "That burglary was a
practical joke, and it's all over the town. Denry Machin had a hand in
that affair, and by now I dare say he wishes he hadn't."
"Still, Mr. Batchgrew," Louis argued superiorly, with the philosophic
impartiality of a man well accustomed to the calm unravelling of
crime, "there may be other burglars in the land beside just those
three." He would not willingly allow the theory of burglars to
crumble. Its attractiveness increased every moment.
"There may and there mayn't, young Fores," said Thomas Batchgrew. "Did
_you_ hear anything of 'em?"
"No, I didn't," Louis replied restively.
"And yet you ought to have been listening out for 'em."
"Why ought I to have been listening out for them?"
"Knowing there was all that money in th' house."
"Mr. Fores didn't know," said Rachel.
Louis felt himself unjustly smirched.
"It's scarcely an hour ago," said he, "that I heard about this money
for the first time." And he felt as innocent and aggrieved as he
looked.
Mr. Batchgrew smacked his lips loudly.
"Then," he announced, "I'm going down to th' police-station, to put it
i' Snow's hands.
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