“Come back to the bank instantly, you two!” he shouted.

“Why?” asked the Lieutenant in a quiet voice.

“Because I say so, for one thing.”

“That reason is unanswerable,” replied the Lieutenant with a slight laugh, which further exasperated his opponent.  “I think you are exciting yourself unnecessarily.  May I beg you to put that pistol in your pocket?  On the cruiser we always cover up the guns when ladies honor us with their presence.  You wish me to return because I had no authority for taking the money?  Right:  come along.”

The cashier regarded this as bluff, and an attempt to give the woman opportunity to escape.

“You must come back also,” he said to the girl.

“I’d rather not,” she pleaded in a low voice, and it was hardly possible to have made a more injudicious remark if she had taken the whole afternoon to prepare.

Renewed determination shone from the face of the cashier.

“You must come back to the bank,” he reiterated.

“Oh, I say,” protested the Lieutenant, “you are now exceeding your authority.  I alone am the culprit.  The young lady is quite blameless, and you have no right to detain her for a moment.”

The girl, who had been edging away and showing signs of flight, which the bareheaded man, visibly on the alert, leaned forward ready to intercept, seemed to make up her mind to bow to the inevitable.  Ignoring the cashier, she looked up at the blond Lieutenant with a slight smile on her pretty lips.

“It was really all my fault at the beginning,” she said, “and very stupid of me.  I am slightly acquainted with the bank manager, and I am sure he will vouch for me, if he is there.”

With that she turned and walked briskly toward the bank, at so rapid a pace as to indicate that she did not wish an escort.  The bareheaded official found his anger unaccountably deserting him, while a great fear that he had put his foot in it took its place.

“Really,” said the Lieutenant gently, as they strode along together, “an official in your position should be a good judge of human nature.  How any sane person, especially a young man, can look at that beautiful girl and suspect her of evil, passes my comprehension.  Do you know her?”

“No,” said the cashier shortly.  “Do you?”

The Lieutenant laughed genially.

“Still suspicious, eh?” he asked.  “No, I don’t know her, but to use a banking term, you may bet your bottom dollar I’m going to.  Indeed, I am rather grateful to you for your stubbornness in forcing us to return.  It’s a quality I like, and you possess it in marvelous development, so I intend to stand by you when the managerial censure is due.  I’m very certain I met your manager at the dinner they gave us last night.  Mr. Morton, isn’t he?”

“Yes,” growled the cashier, in gruff despondency.

“Ah, that’s awfully jolly.  One of the finest fellows I’ve met in ten years.  Now, the lady said she was acquainted with him, so if I don’t wheedle an introduction out of him, it will show that a man at a dinner and a man in a bank are two different individuals.  You were looking for plots; so there is mine laid bare to you.  It’s an introduction, not gold, I’m conspiring for.”