Bates had laid his plans very carefully and very well indeed. In many respects Rigby had got the best of the detective, but this was as much due to circumstances as anything else. Still, when it came to the technical side of the case, Rigby was no match for the inspector. It was nearly nine o'clock before Bates called at Carrington's rooms and asked to see the latter. There was no occasion yet for Bates to assume the very effective disguise with which he was to trick Anstruther. There would be plenty of time for that. Carrington was just finishing his dinner--so his man said. He was not very well, and did not care to see anybody. But Bates put the man aside in his own easy way, and walked into the dining-room without the trouble of announcing himself.

That Carrington was suffering from some mental and physical excitement was perfectly plain. His face was ghastly pale, his eyes were bloodshot, and there was a twitching of his lips which told a plain tale to an experienced officer like Bates. Carrington scowled, and demanded the meaning of this unwarrantable intrusion.

"I don't think you will find it unwarrantable when you have heard me to the finish," Bates said. "Nor will it pay you to take this tone with me. I am an inspector from Scotland Yard, and unless you answer my questions freely, I shall have to put them in a more disagreeable form."

Carrington changed his note altogether. His face became still more pallid. He motioned Bates to a chair. He would have found it hard to have spoken just then. Bates waited a moment to give the other time to recover. Carrington at length found words to ask Bates what his business was with him.

"It is with regard to your affair at the bank," the inspector explained. "You may not be aware of the fact, but the case has been placed in my hands by my superiors."

"Oh, you are alluding to the burglary," Carrington said.

"We will call it a burglary for the present," Bates replied, with a significance that there was no mistaking. "I have gone into the matter carefully, and I have come to the conclusion that there was no burglary at all."

Carrington jumped to his feet with a well-simulated air of indignation. He advanced towards Bates threateningly.

"You insolent scoundrel!" he cried. "What do you mean? Do you know you are dealing with a gentleman and man of honor?"

"Softly, softly," Bates replied. "I think we had better understand one another. I have in my possession at the present moment a warrant for your arrest for fraud and embezzlement, relating to certain jewels and other valuables deposited in your keeping by various clients. It is in my power to execute that warrant at once. The case is much too serious a one for bail, and it is for you to say whether you will remain for the present in your comfortable quarters, or pass, at any rate, the next two months in jail."

Carrington made no further show of fight. He collapsed into his chair, and wiped his wet forehead distractedly.

"You don't mean that," he groaned. "There must be some terrible mistake here. Why, all the evidences pointed to an ingenious and daring burglary. The night watchmen were drugged, as you know, and the thieves employed dynamite to blow up the safes. No one regrets the loss of all those valuables more than I do, but even banks are not secure against the modern burglar. Those safes were crammed full of valuables, as I could easily prove."

"They were," Bates corrected. "But I am in a position to prove a few things, too. You would give a great deal, I suppose, to know where those valuables are?"

Carrington replied to the effect that he would give half his fortune for the desired information. Bates smiled.

"You need not worry about it," he said. "I have a list in my pocket of the big pawnbrokers in London where most of the goods were pledged. In three cases the pawnbrokers in question are in a position to swear to the identity of the man who handled the jewels. You would not, of course, mind meeting these people?"

But Carrington had no reply. He looked so helplessly at Bates that the latter could not but feel sorry for him. "I am afraid the game is up, sir," he said. "My investigations of this case prove most conclusively that you are at the bottom of the whole thing. We know perfectly well that recent speculations of yours have brought about a financial crisis in your bank. In your desperate need, you realized the securities which certain clients had left in your hands. It was only when Lady Barmouth called for her gems that the situation became acute. But that will form the basis of another charge."

"But that was all a mistake," Carrington gurgled eagerly. "I sent Lady Barmouth her gems, but they proved to be those belonging to somebody else. I assure you that was quite an error."

Bates shrugged his shoulders impatiently. He was getting annoyed with this, man, who refused to follow his lead. "We know all about that ingenious fraud," he said. "We are quite aware of that clever business of the paste gems, for which you gave ￡200 at Clerkenwell. You paid for that rubbish with Bank of England notes marked with the stamp of your establishment. It was a very happy idea of yours and Anstruther's."

Carrington groaned feebly; he began to fear the very worst.

"You seem to know everything," he said. "Perhaps you can tell me the story of the burglary?"

"I am coming to that presently," Bates said coolly. "Now you were at your wits' ends to know what to do. You knew perfectly well that many of your clients would require their jewels for Lady Barmouth's dance. They were not forthcoming, for the simple reason that they had been pledged elsewhere. You had not the necessary cunning to devise some scheme to shift the blame from your shoulders, so you called in your friend Anstruther. It was he who hit upon the idea of the burglary. It was you who placed temptation in the way of the night watchmen through the medium of a couple of bottles of drugged port wine. After that the rest was easy. You had only to enter the bank with your own keys----"

"Stop a moment," Carrington cried eagerly. "You seem to forget that even I cannot enter the vaults of the bank without duplicate keys in the possession of various cashiers."

"Now, listen to me," Bates said impressively. "This discussion is absolutely irregular. It is my plain duty to arrest you a............