"Fetch a policeman!" The truth flashed across me as I heard the words.
Instead of standing here an accuser, I stood the accused. Hawkesbury
had been before me with a vengeance!
The very shock of the discovery called back the presence of mind, which,
on my first summons, I had almost lost. I was determined at least that
nothing I should do or say would lend colour to the false charge against
me.
"Batchelor," said Mr Merrett, after Hawkesbury had gone and the door
was locked--"Batchelor, we have sent for you here under very painful
circumstances. You doubtless know why."
"I must ask you to tell me, sir," I replied, respectfully, but with a
tremble in my voice which I would have given anything to conceal.
"I will tell you," said Mr Merrett, "when you have first told Mr
Barnacle and me what you have been doing since eight o'clock this
morning."
"And let me advise you," said Mr Barnacle, looking up, "to tell the
truth."
"I certainly will tell the truth," I began.
What possessed that unlucky voice of mine to quaver in the way it did?
Those few words, I was convinced, would tell more against me than the
most circumstantial narrative. I clutched hold of the back of a chair
near me, and made a desperate effort to steady myself as I proceeded. I
gave an exact account of everything that had happened since I entered
the office that morning, omitting nothing, glossing over nothing,
shirking nothing. They both listened attentively, eyeing me keenly all
the time, and betraying no sign in their faces whether they believed me
or not.
"Then you mean to say," said Mr Merrett, when it was done, "that you
were not in this room at all?"
"Yes, I never entered it."
"Were you ever in this room without our knowledge?"
"Yes, a fortnight ago. Smith and I were here early, and hearing a noise
inside, we opened the door and came in to see what it was."
"What did you find?"
"Hawkesbury, working at the table where Mr Barnacle is now sitting."
"What occurred?"
I related precisely what had occurred, repeating as nearly as I could
the very words that had been used.
There was a silence, and then Mr Merrett, in his most solemn tones,
said, "Now, Batchelor, answer this question. You say you were here
before any one else arrived this morning?"
"Yes, sir. I had been here about five minutes before Hawkesbury came."
"What were you doing during that time?"
"I was working at my desk."
"You are quite sure?"
"Perfectly," said I, my cheeks burning and my heart swelling within me
to be thus spoken to by those whom, with all my faults, I had never once
so much as dreamt of deceiving.
"You did not enter this room?"
"No."
Mr Merrett touched his bell, and Hawkesbury appeared. I scarcely
wondered he should try to avoid my eye as he stood at the table waiting.
"Hawkesbury, repeat once more, in Batchelor's hearing, what you have
already told us."
He kept his head down and his face averted from me as he said, "I
arrived here at a quarter to nine this morning, and noticed the door of
this room open, and when I came to see who was there I saw Batchelor in
the act of shutting the safe. He did not notice me at first, not until
he was coming out of the room. I asked him what he was doing here. He
seemed very much disconcerted, and said he had been looking for some
papers he had left on Mr Barnacle's table the day before. I asked him
what he had been doing with the safe, and where he had got the key to
open it. He got into a great state, and begged me to say nothing about
it. I said I was bound to tell you what I had seen. Then he flew into
a rage, and told me he'd serve me out. I told him that wouldn't prevent
me doing what was right. Then he left the office, and didn't come back
till a quarter to ten."
All this Hawkesbury repeated glibly and hurriedly in a low voice. To
me, who stood by and heard it, it was a cowardly lie from beginning to
end. But to my employers, I felt, it must sound both businesslike and
straightforward; quite as straightforward, I feared, as my own equally
exact but tremblingly-spoken story.
"You hear what Hawkesbury says?" said Mr Merrett, turning to me.