Guy Hammersley; or, Clearing his Name — page 33: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

24 GUY HAMMERSLEY. and whicn he had left in his desk through oversight on going out to lunch with a friend. When he came back the roll was missing. He questioned his em- ployees, and ascertained from them that no one had admitted anybody during his absence. But the cut from our establishment was there, and naturally Mr. Inwood at once came around to me to find out who had brought it.” Guy saw it all now, comprehended how his eager- ness to execute his errand with dispatch had resulted in coiling about him a web of circumstantial evidence from which he would find it difficult to escape. ‘‘This is horrible, Mr. Fox,” he said, now in his turn pacing up and down the floor in nervous helpless- ness. ‘‘I nevertook that money, had no earthly idea it was there, as howshouldI have? Finding nobody came, and seeing the room open where the package belonged, Isimply walked in, left it and came away. The reason I did not return at once to the restaurant was because I met a messenger from home who in- formed me that mother had been injured in an acci- dent. Naturally I was very much alarmed and came up here at once. As for the robbery, the evidence against me, you must see, is purely circumstantial. Why cannot some one of Mr. Inwood’s clerks have taken the money as well as 1?” ‘‘And what would that be but convicting them on circumstantial evidence too?” Mr. Fox put in quickly. ‘* Besides, Mr. Inwood has perfect confidence in them all. They have had numberless opportunities to steal much greater amounts, and nothing was ever missed before. Of course I was greatly shocked and at first EGomichbooks (C@) m