I went back, however, to the bank, and handed in the numbers of the stolen notes.

Here again I learnt that to refuse payment was impossible, and that all I could hope was that each note changed would give me a clue as to the whereabouts of the thief.

Each forward step in the matter showed me more plainly the difficulties of the task I had undertaken, and my own incapacity for such work.

Nothing is so good for a man's vanity as contact with a clever scoundrel.
I resolved to engage the entire services of some one who, without being a professed thief-catcher, could at all events meet Charles Miste on his own slippery ground.

With the help of the bank manager, I found one, named Sander, an accountant, who made an especial study of the shadier walks of finance, and this man set to work the same afternoon.