If they have had a hand
in the matter they most assuredly had accomplices, for such goods
could not be disposed of by an apprentice to any dealer without his
being sure that they must have been stolen."
"You are right there, lad--quite right. Did John Wilkes know that I
had been robbed in this way he would get into a fury, and no words
could restrain him from falling upon the apprentices and beating them
till he got some of the truth out of them."
"They may be quite innocent," Cyril said. "It may be that the thieves
have discovered some mode of entry into the store either by opening
the shutters at the back, or by loosening a board, or even by delving
up under the ground. It is surely easier to believe this than that
the boys can have contrived to carry off so large a quantity of goods
under John Wilkes's eye."
"That is so, lad. I have never liked Robert Ashford, but God forbid
that I should suspect him of such crime only because his forehead is
as wrinkled as an ape's, and Providence has set his eyes crossways in
his head. You cannot always judge a ship by her upper works; she may
be ugly to the eye and yet have a clear run under water. Still, you
can't help going by what you see. I agree with you that if we tell
John Wilkes about this, those boys will know five minutes afterwards
that the ship is on fire; but if we don't tell him, how are we to get
to the bottom of what is going on?"
"That is a difficult question, but a few days will not make much
difference, when we know that it has been going on for over a year,
and may, for aught we know, have been going on much longer.
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