His thoughts were
running on nothing but the robbery, and he had found it very
difficult to talk in his usual manner, and to answer Nellie's
sprightly sallies. It was dark already. A few oil lamps gave a feeble
light here and there. At present he had formed no plan whatever of
detecting the thieves; he was as much puzzled as the Captain himself
as to how the goods could have been removed. It would be necessary,
of course, to watch the apprentices, but he did not think that
anything was likely to come out of this. It was the warehouse itself
that must be watched, in order to discover how the thieves made an
entry. His own idea was that they got over the wall by means of a
rope, and in some way managed to effect an entry into the warehouse.
The apprentices could hardly aid them unless they came down through
the house.
If they had managed to get a duplicate key of the door leading from
the bottom of the stairs to the shop, they could, of course, unbar
the windows, and pass things out--that part of the business would be
easy; but he could not believe that they would venture frequently to
pass down through the house. It was an old one, and the stairs
creaked. He himself was a light sleeper; he had got into the way of
waking at the slightest sound, from the long watches he had had for
his father's return, and felt sure that he should have heard them
open their door and steal along the passage past his room, however
quietly they might do it. He walked up the Exchange, then along
Cheapside as far as St.
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