His costume of checked tweed of a peculiarly loud pattern had tickled the fancy of some of the waitresses, who were standing gazing at him and giggling in one corner.

This evidently made him nervous.

He gazed up very meekly at Polly, looking for all the world like a bald-headed adjutant dressed for a holiday.
"Of course, all sorts of theories of the theft got about at first.

One of the most popular, and at the same time most quickly exploded, being that young Schwarz had told a cock-and-bull story, and was the actual thief himself.
"However, as I said before, that was very quickly exploded, as Mr.
Schwarz senior, a very wealthy merchant, never allowed his son's carelessness to be a serious loss to his kind employers.

As soon as he thoroughly grasped all the circumstances of the extraordinary case, he drew a cheque for L10,500 and remitted it to Messrs.