To this Lane simply remarked that when a paper of importance had disappeared it was quite impossible to prophesy into whose hands it would fall. The dustman was a comforting theory, but it was no part of his business to adopt comforting theories that did away with the necessity to think. If “Tubby” Thomas had not been safely locked up at Dartmoor for the last two years, he would have been pretty certain that by some felonious means it had come into the possession of that accomplished safe-breaker. His position had changed since Mr. Morrice had summoned him to Deanery Street on the occasion of the second burglary. He was now representing the financier as well as Richard Croxton. In a way he was glad, for Richard Croxton was poor according to Rosabelle, and this promised to be an expensive investigation. To Morrice money did not matter; he would not be stopped from ascertaining the truth by lack of funds. But in another way it was awkward. They had already found out about Mrs. Morrice that, in conjunction with Sir George Clayton-Brookes, the supposed wealthy baronet, she was passing off as her nephew a young man who had no claim to the title. In course of time Morrice would have to be acquainted with that suspicious fact, and whatever degree of affection the banker felt for his wife, whether he loved her very much or hardly at all, it would be a terrible blow to him, either to his love or pride, or both. Lane had a long talk with Sellars over the latest development of the Morrice mystery. The young man strongly maintained that it greatly strengthened the presumption of Croxton’s innocence, and although the detective, with his usual habit of caution, did not take quite such a decided view as his more impetuous lieutenant, he readily admitted that it told in his favour, that any man possessing the legal mind must concede as much. “The more I can find out about him and his habits,” Sellars remarked, “the more it seems unlikely, although not, of course, impossible, that he should have done this thing. As far as I can learn, he has been in love with Miss Sheldon for years, and his life has simply been bound up with the Morrice family. They entertained very largely, and he always showed up at their entertainments, was at every dinner-party they gave, just like a son of the house. He seems to have very few young men friends, but they are all of a most respectable type. He doesn’t gamble, he doesn’t drink. Other women don’t come into the case, for he is hardly ever a yard away from his lady-love. Does he seem the kind of man to get himself into a hole out of which he can only extricate himself by robbery?” And Lane was forced to agree that if the good report of one’s fellows could establish innocence, young Richard Croxton was already satisfactorily whitewashed. But of course, in the opinion of this eminent practitioner, all this was negative evidence, not positive.