From that point onward, innocence of
conduct or explanation so explicit as to satisfy any ordinary man,
becomes evidence of more subtle guilt to the mind of a bank official.
The ordinary citizen, seeing the Lieutenant finally overtake and
accost the hurrying girl, raise his cap, then pour into her
outstretched hand the gold he had taken, would have known at once that
here was an every-day exercise of natural politeness. Not so the
cashier. The farther he got from the bank, the more poignantly did he
realize that these two in front, both strangers to him, had, by their
combined action, lured him, pistol and all, away from his post during
the dullest hour of the day. It was not the decamping with those few
pieces of gold which now troubled him: it was fear of what might be
going on behind him. He was positive that these two had acted in
conjunction. The uniform worn by the man did not impose upon him. Any
thief could easily come by a uniform, and, as his mind glanced rapidly
backwards over the various points of the scheme, he saw how effectual
the plan was: first, the incredible remissness of the woman in leaving
her gold on the counter; second, the impetuous disappearance of the
man with the money; and, third, his own heedless plunge into the
street after them. He saw the whole plot in a flash: he had literally
leaped into the trap, and during his five or ten minutes' absence, the
accomplices of the pair might have overawed the unarmed clerks, and
walked off with the treasure.
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