When London Burned

of the stock-taking, Cyril s

you go downstairs to the counting-house. I am free for two hours now, a

et enough here, as soon as the table is cleared. My dame and Nellie will be

il went up to his room and returned with

ain Dave, been making up this sto

This accounts, then, for your writing so long at ni

hundred fathoms in stock. These are the amounts you have purchased since. Now, upon the other side are all the sales of this cable entered in the sales-book. Adding them together, and deducting them from the other side, you will see there should remain in stock four hundred and fifty fathoms. According to the n

s, 'Give good measurement, John-better a little over than a

losed t

re not so satisfactory, and that I greatly fear t

pon them, and the entrance to the shop is always locked and barred after work is over, so that none can enter without getting the key, which, as you know, John always brings up and hands to me as soon as he has fastened the

aid gravely, "and if you will bear with me for a few minutes, I think

at I should hear what you have to say; but it will need strong e

strange indeed if heavy goods had all been properly entered, and light ones omitted; but yet when we turn to small articles, we find that there is a great discrepancy between the figures. Here is the account, for instance, of the half-inch rope. According to my ledger, there should be eighteen hundred fathoms in stock, whereas the stock-takers found but three hundred and eighty. In two-inch rope there is a deficiency of two hundred and thirty fathoms, in one-inch rope of six hundred and twenty. These sizes, as you know, are always in requisition, and a thief would find ready purchasers for a coil of any of them. But, as might

hard. He took out his handkerchief and wiped

hoarsely. "Are you sure that you ha

ve gone through the books three times and compared the figures, and I am sure that if

Captain Dav

said at last, "how t

him how matters stand. My only objection to that is that he is a hasty man, and that I fear he would not be able to keep his countenance, so that the apprentices would remark that something was wrong. I am far from saying that they have any hand in it; it would be a grievous wrong to them to have suspicions when there is no shadow of evidence against them; but at any rate, if this matter is to be

in this way he would get into a fury, and no words could restrain him from fallin

her by opening the shutters at the back, or by loosening a board, or even by delving up under the ground. It is surely easi

rossways 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

en going on for over a year, and may, for aught we know, have been going on much longer. The first thing

ow how careful you are, and you canno

ke my testimony as to your losses, and might even say that you were rash in acting upon the word of a boy like myself, and you might then be obliged to have the accounts made up anew, which would cost you more, and cause much delay in the process; whereas

t for the life of me I don't see how we are to get at t

red from without. As I never go in there, it would be best that you should see to this matter yourself. There are the fastenings of the shutters in the first place, then the boardings all round. As for me, I will look round outside. The window of my room looks into the stree

t, etc. There were two or three score of guns of various sizes piled on each other. A large store of cannon-ball was ranged in a great pyramid close by. A wall some ten feet high separated the yard from the lane Cyril ha

know who lives in thos

nationality, and whither she is bound, and still more whether she is an honest trader or a rascal

hat live there; but, as I have said, I fancy it is over that wall and into the alley th

next to yours, and the door opposit

any of the rooms lo

blank wall

, starting. "It is time for me to be off. Then

the fastenings of the two windows and door from the warehouse into the yar

inhabited by respectable citizens. Over the door of one was painted, "Joshua Heddings, Attorney"; next to him was Gilbert Gushing, who dealt in jewels, silks, and other precious commod

he had two customers whom he attended with but half an hour's interval between the visits, and o

ut the burden of keeping up the conversation lay entirely on her shoulders and those of Cyril. After the apprentices had left, and John Wilkes had started for his usual resort, the Captain lit hi

he has gone about scarcely speaking; he hasn't said a cross word to any of us, but several times when I spoke to him I got no answer, and it is easy to see that he is terribly put out about something. He was in his u

e examined some fresh books I have been making out and said that he was mightily pleased with my wor

about it, Master Cyril. Well, then, you may consider yo

re true that anything that I had said to him had ruffle

, and I shall take him for my escort to see His

l sm

a turn, Mistress, and I am glad to s

nd taking her work sat dow

aptain Dave, "and I think I shall take

ve him, that he was going out for some purpo

t home every evening. I have often wondered before that you did not ta

said, with a laugh. "If you knew how pleasant the evenings have

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

g 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. Paul's, and back. Quiet as it was in Thames Street there was no lack of animation elsewhere. Apprentices were generally allowed to go out for an hour after supper, the regulation being that they retur

said. "The two boys came in five minut

d that there was something wrong with you, and that I must know what it was about, s

at sea, you may be sure, to know that when anything is wrong, it is

is morning, Captain Dave?"

of the boys, was always in the warehouse, and I have had no opportunity of examining the door and shutters closely. When the house is sound asleep we will take a lantern and go down to look at them. I have been thinking tha

books, but I have no experience in matters like this,

st eight. He is as p

down and l

eak to you," he said, "b

y bolting the door,

your pipe again, and sit down. My good dame has gone

imaginary hat an

it is well he did, for unless he had done so we should have had her founder

pipe from between his lips and sta

pirate about somewhere, and the books show that, since the stock-taking fifteen months

to the table with such force t

man? You only give me the orders, sir, and

. That the goods have gone is certain, but

't be, sir. There must be some mistake. I know naught about figures, save enough to put down the things I sell, but I don't

ut of the shop, and from your entry-book what has come in. We know now what there is remaining. We find that in bulky goods, such as cables and anchors and ships' boile

er and longer as he h

, if that 'ere list be correct, the best thing you can do is to send me adrift as a blind fool. I have kept my tallies as correct as I could, and I thought I had m

t I never saw the need for it. This is what comes of taking to a trade you know nothing about; we have just been like two children, thinking that it was all plain and above board, and that we had nothing to do but to sell our goods and to fill up again when the hold got

e hatches according

over the wall between the yard and the lane, and then getting into the warehouse somehow. It must have been done very often, for if the things had been taken in considerable quantities yo

s. The Captain took out the key and turne

noisy lock,

en thinking of doing it for the last month,

ves could not have got into the shop this way, for

xamined; there was no sign of their having been tampered with. Each bolt and hasp was tried, and the screws examined

things cannot walk out of themselves; they have got to be carried. But how the fellows wh

I can see,

nto the shop, and were

l sa

for example, and a good deal of canvas, and most of the smaller copper fittings; so that, whoev

Perhaps they enter

e lantern here, J

ld the lanter

yril said, examining both the lock and the door-post. "Whether the t

ptain

with them, Cyril; and if one does not q

hose of the door, were as secure as those of the warehous

, although we can't find it," Captain Dave sa

Wilkes said, "that some o

ied them a

t one of them is wedged in, and that when the

good look round the yard to-morrow. The warehouse is strongly built, and I don't believe that any plank could be taken of

frequent. Had a large amount been taken at a time, John Wilkes would have been sure to notice it. Then, again, the thieves would not come so often, and each time for a comparatively small amount of

got to the bottom of the matter. I am responsible for the cargo below, and if I had kept as sharp an eye on the stores as I ought to have done, this would not have happened. Only let me catch them tr

u might cripple them, more likely they would make off, and we want to capture them. Therefore, I say, let us watch, and find out how the

I won't say no to that; but for to

my room in your stockinged feet directly you see anything moving. Open the door and say, 'Strange sail

t passed

Captain said next morning, after the a

thing,

ve a look in the yard.

to do so. You might say, in the hearing of the apprentices, 'We may as well take the measurements for that new shed we were talki

apprentices are in it?"

e they could not get into the shop without that stiff bolt making a noise. Still, as it is possible they may be concerned in the matter,

l you are in a position to take the traitor by the collar and put a pistol to his ear. That idea of yours is a very good one; I will say something a

Dave went with Cyril i

yard looking them out; we looked over the place pretty sharply, as you may be sure, but as f

ore, and ten minutes afterwards

to take those measurements. Bring out your ink-horn,

il had observed from the window above, did not extend as far as the back wall; but on walking round there with the two

ng of putting the shed," the

d door into the loft over the wareh

ere, but it didn't pay for the trouble; and, besides, as you see, he wanted every foot of the yard room, and of course at that tim

inst the wooden shutters. The rope was still through the block, and pa

en the Captain and John Wilkes agreed that this should be the same as the rest of the building. Still talking on the subject, they returned through the warehouse, Cyril on the way taking a look at

d, "it will give you a deal more room, and you will be able to get rid of a

surements, all three had carefully

r said, as, leaving John Wilkes in the warehouse,

t had any opening to the outside. Of course I have seen the ladder going up from

wenty feet from the ground, so that you would want a long ladder, and when you got up there you would find that you could not open the shutters. I

the window of the room that had been now given to John Wilkes, and that the latter should have a night in his berth, as

the middle watch to-morrow night if you like, but one can see with half an eye that you are not fit to be on the lookout to-night. I doubt if any of us could see as far as the l