Neither of the girls spoke of their discovery to anyone the next day, but Blanche returned to the cottage at half-past four, when Mrs Isaacson was at a meeting over the way, and explored her bedroom. She found a small store of tea, sugar and candles under the mattress--the whisky bottle had disappeared--and so came to an understanding of Mrs Isaacson's self-sacrificing insistence that she should perform all work connected with her own sleeping-place--it could hardly be called a room. After consultation with Millie, Blanche decided that she must inform Jasper Thrale of the contraband. "She's been stealing, of course," he said. "I suppose we shall have to bring it home to her." But he laughed at Blanche's indignation. "She's stealing from us!" said Blanche, who had developed a fine sense of her duty towards and interest in the community. "Oh, yes! you're quite right," said Thrale. "I'll inform the committee--at least, the non-Jenkynites." The five non-Jenkynites were furious. "We must make an example," Elsie Durham said. "It isn't that we shall miss what the Isaacson woman has taken--or will take. It's the question of precedent. This is where we are facing the beginning of law--isn't it? Somebody has to protect the members of the community against themselves. If one steals and goes unpunished, another will steal. We shall have the women divided into stealers and workers." "What are you going to do with her?" asked Thrale. "Turn her out," replied Elsie Durham. "The Jenkynites won't let her go," said Thrale raising the larger question. "We shall see," said Elsie Durham, "But that reminds me that we must catch the woman flagrante delicto; we must have no quibbles about the facts." Thrale agreed with the wisdom of this policy, but refused to take any part in either the detection or the prosecution of Mrs Isaacson. "They'll say its a put-up job if I have anything to do with it," he argued. 8 The Jenkynites blazed when Rebecca Isaacson was finally caught and denounced. The culprit, when caught in the act of entering the bank premises had made a slight error of judgment, and pleaded the excuse that she was a sleepwalker and quite unconscious of what she was doing; but she afterwards adopted a sounder line of defence. She made full confession to the seventeen, pleaded extravagant penitence with all the necessary references to the blood of the Lamb, and displayed all the well-known signs that she would become fervent in well-doing after the ensanguined ablutions had been metaphorically performed. The Jenkynites were enraptured with so real a case of sin. They had been compelled to content themselves with so many minor failures from grace that the performances were becoming slightly monotonous. The "Sister Rebecca" case was refreshingly real and genuine, and they meant to make the most of it. Also, this case gave them occasion to assert themselves once more against the opinions of the community.