"I haven't had patience to
go all through it. But that's enough. I needn't tell ye I suspected ye
last year, but ye put me off. And I was too busy to take the trouble
to go into it. However, I've had a fair chance while you've been
away." He gave a sneering laugh. "I'll tell ye what put me on to ye
again, if you've a mind to know. The weekly expenses went down as soon
as ye thought I had suspicions. Ye weren't clever enough to keep 'em
up. Well, what have ye got to say for yeself, seeing ye are on yer way
to America?"
"I never meant to go to America," said Louis. "Why should I go to
America?"
"Ask me another. Then ye confess?"
"I don't," said Louis.
"Oh! Ye don't!" Horrocleave sat down and put his hands on his
outstretched knees.
"There may be mistakes in the petty-cash book. I don't say there
aren't. Any one who keeps a petty-cash book stands to lose. If he's
too busy at the moment to enter up a payment, he may forget it--and
there you are! He's out of pocket. Of course," Louis added, with a
certain loftiness, "as you're making a fuss about it I'll pay up for
anything that's wrong ... whatever the sum is. If you make it out to
be a hundred pounds I'll pay up."
Horrocleave growled: "Oh, so ye'll pay up, will ye? And suppose I
won't let ye pay up? What shall ye do then?"
Louis, now quite convinced that Horrocleave was only bullying
retorted, calmly:
"It's I that ought to ask you that question.
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