gone," snapped the girl. "If he hasn't got it why did it vanish—where is it now? That's all I ask—where is it now?"
"You've seen nothing of it, I take it, sir?"
"No, of course I haven't," retorted the gentleman contemptuously. "I was sitting on a seat. The woman may have sat next to me—someone reading certainly did. Then I got up, walked once or twice up and down and came across. That's all."
"What was in the purse, miss?" inquired the constable.
"A postal order for a sovereign—and, thank the Lord, I've got the tag of it—a half-crown, two shillings and a few coppers, a Kruger sixpence with a hole through, a gold gipsy ring with pearls, the return half of my ticket, some hairpins and a few recipes, a book of powder papers, a pocket mirror"
"That ought to be enough to identify it by," said the constable, catching Mr Slater's eye in humorous sympathy. "Well, miss, you'd better come to the station and report the loss. Perhaps you'll look in as well, sir?"
"Does that mean," demanded Mr Slater with a dark gleam, "that I am to be charged with theft?"
"Bless you, no, sir," was the easy reassurance. "We couldn't take a charge in the circumstances—not with a gentleman of respectable position and known address. But it might save you some inquiry and bother later, and if it was myself I should like to get it done with while it was red-hot, so to speak."
"I will go now," decided Mr Slater. "Do I walk with?"
"Just as you like, sir. You can go before or follow on. It's only just down Bank Street."
