"I'll see you in a few minutes," answered Mr. Haddon, and brusquely pressed them before him into the corridor. When he reëntered the study he looked at them all grimly. "There's absolutely no keeping this from the papers," he said. "But there must still be another place the money can be!" Helen cried. "I've investigated every other place," returned Mr. Haddon, in the calm voice of finality. "The safe was the last possibility." They all three stared at each other. It was Dr. Thorn that spoke the thought of all. "Then the worst we feared--is true?" Mr. Haddon nodded. "It must be." David could not speak, nor think--could only lean sickened against the desk. The exposure of Morton--and a thousand times worse, the ruin of St. Christopher's--both inevitable! "Won't you please look again!" Helen cried, with desperate hope. "Perhaps you overlooked something." Mr. Haddon knelt once more, and slowly fluttered the pages of the books and scrutinised each scrap of paper. Soon he paused, and studied a slip he had come upon. Then he rose, and David saw at the head of the slip, "Cash Account of Boys' Summer Home." It was the paper he had prepared to hide Morton's embezzlement. Mr. Haddon's steady eyes took in David and Dr. Thorn. "Could anybody have been in the safe since Mr. Morton's death?" "It's hardly possible," returned Dr. Thorn. "Mr. Aldrich has been in the study almost constantly." Mr. Haddon's eyes fastened on David; a quick gleam came into them. David, unnerved as he was, could not keep his face from twitching. There was a long silence. Then Mr. Haddon asked quietly: "Could you have been in the safe, Mr. Aldrich?" David did not recognise whither the question led. "Why, yes," he said mechanically. Mr. Haddon held out the slip of paper. "According to this memorandum in Mr. Morton's hand, the money was in the safe the day before his death." His eyes screwed into David. "Perhaps you can suggest to us what became of the money." David stared at him blankly. "The money--was there--when Morton died!" said Dr. Thorn amazedly. He looked from one man to the other. Then understanding came into his face, and a great relief. "You mean--Mr. Aldrich--took it?" "I took it!" David repeated stupidly. He turned slowly to Helen. Her white face, with its wide eyes and parted lips, and the sudden look of fear she held upon him, cleared his head, made him see where he was. "I did not take the money!" he cried. "No, of course not," returned Mr. Haddon grimly. "But who did?" "If I'd taken it, wouldn't I have disappeared? Would I have been such a fool as to have stayed here to be caught?" "If the thief had run away, that would have fastened the guilt on him at once. To remain here, hoping to throw suspicion on Mr. Morton--this was the cleverest course." "I did not take the money!" David cried desperately. "It's a lie!"