CHAPTER XXXVII
SEARCHING THE COTTAGE
"Colonel Ross, your suspicions are very insulting and entirelyunwarranted," said the Widow Gilbert, with a flush on her usually palecheek.
"Of course I knew you would not believe anything against your son, whomyou believe to be a model," said Colonel Ross, with a sneer.
"So he is – a model!" said the widow, warmly.
"Then all I can say is that there is a strong reason to suspect thatthis model son of yours is a thief."
"I deny it."
"I notice, however, that you are afraid to have the house searched."
"I have never expressed any unwillingness."
"Then I understand that you give your consent."
"I do."
"Very well. Then allow me to call in a party not interested, who willattend to that duty."
Colonel Ross went to the outer door, and, opening it, called:
"Constable, you are wanted!"
At this summons a tall, stout man – Mr. Rogers, the villageconstable – came forward, as it seemed, rather reluctantly.
"Constable," said Colonel Ross, "Mrs. Gilbert has given her consent tohave the house searched for the bonds which were abstracted from mytrunk last evening."
"Mr. Rogers," said Mrs. Gilbert, who knew the constable well, "ColonelRoss has made a cruel and unwarranted charge against Harry. I hope youdon't believe he is a thief."
"I don't," said the constable, bluntly. "I've known your boy ever sincehe was a baby, and I never knew him to do a mean thing."
"Constable," said Colonel Ross, angrily, "it does not become you toscreen the guilty or make excuses for him."
"It strikes me you're rather too fast, Colonel Ross, in making him outguilty. What proof have you of it?"
"My son's word."
"Oh!" said the constable, expressively.
"You have only to do your duty and search the house, and I venture topredict that the evidence will be forthcoming that will convince evenyou."
"Mrs. Gilbert," said the constable, "I hope you'll excuse me for obeyingthe Colonel. I have to do it, you know."
"Do your duty, Mr. Rogers. We are not afraid to have the house searchedfrom top to bottom."
"I don't want to disturb your things, Mrs. Gilbert. Suppose you go roundand open everything to us."
"If that will be satisfactory to Colonel Ross. I want him satisfied."
"As long as I am present, with a right to examine, I shall not object."
"It seems to me, Colonel Ross," remarked Uncle Obed, "you are nottreating the boy right."
"It is immaterial to me what you think, Mr. Wilkins," replied the
Colonel, with asperity.
"Mebbe so," said the old man. "I calculate it won't always be so. Thetime may come when you will care more for my opinion."
"You flatter yourself unduly, Mr. Wilkins, I assure you."
"Mebbe so," answered the old man, not appearing at all discomposed bythe rude tone of his niece's husband.
"We will begin here, gentlemen," said Mrs. Gilbert.
So saying, she went about from place to place down below, openingwhatever drawers there were, even in the pantry, and revealing nothingthat looked like the bonds.
"I didn't expect they were downstairs," said the Colonel.
"Then we will go upstairs. You shall not say that we have concealedanything or shrunk from any investigation."
"Very well."
Mrs. Gilbert thereupon led the way upstairs, and the search began. Finally, they came to her own bureau. The upper drawer was opened, andthe sharp eyes of the Colonel detected a large envelope. It was the onethat contained the bonds which had been presented to Harry for hisservice in ferreting out the burglars in the wood.
Singular as it may seem, neither Harry nor his mother had thought ofthem, and the false inference that might be drawn from their discovery. It was natural, therefore, that each should look startled anddiscomposed.
"Ha! what have we here?" demanded Colonel Ross, clutching the envelope.
"Those are my property," said Harry, who was the first to recover hisself-possession.
"I will take the liberty to examine. Ha! government bonds, as I live.
Constable, what do you say now?" demanded the Colonel, triumphantly.
The constable, who knew nothing of Harry's gift, looked veryuncomfortable indeed. Despite his belief in Harry's honesty, he wasstaggered by this apparent evidence to the contrary.
"What is this, Mrs. Gilbert?" he asked.
"They are bonds belonging to Harry. He speaks the truth."
"A likely story," exclaimed Colonel Ross. "Really, Mrs. Gilbert, yourconduct is most extraordinary. I begin to think you had some knowledgeof your son's act."
"Colonel Ross, don't you dare to insult my mother," said Harry, sofiercely that the Colonel retreated a little, under the impression thatour hero intended to make an insult upon him.
"Be careful, boy," he warned. "I've caught you red-handed in thecommission of a crime that may send you to State's prison. You'd bettertake heed what you say!"
"Mr. Rogers," said Mrs. Gilbert, "that envelope contains governmentbonds that belong to my son. Ask Colonel Ross how many he lost."
"Two bonds of a hundred dollars each," answered the Colonel. "And herethey are," he continued, producing two bonds of that denomination fromthe envelope.
"Look again. See if there are no more," said Harry.
The Colonel, evidently surprised, produced a fifty.
"Do you mean to say that you lost that, also?" inquired Harry.
"No," replied the Colonel, evidently puzzled; "you must have got thatfrom somewhere else."
"I got the whole somewhere else," said Harry.
"It is entirely useless, Harry Gilbert, to attempt to impose upon me byany such ridiculous story. As to the extra bond, I don't know where itcame from. Perhaps your mother had it before. It doesn't alter the factthat I have found my stolen bonds in your possession."
"When did you lose your bonds?" asked Uncle Obed, who thought it time to "put in his oar," as he afterward expressed it.
"Last evening."
"You're sure you had 'em up to that time, are you?"
"Yes; I looked them over, and counted them early in the evening."
"Then, all I can say is that the bonds you've got in your hands havebeen in the house several days. Harry showed them to me when he firstgot 'em."
"Really, Mr. Wilkins, I don't like to doubt the word of an old man likeyou; but, sir, your statement is absolutely incredible."
"It is true," said Mrs. Gilbert. "I, too, assert the same thing."
"Then you are all in a conspiracy," said Colonel Ross, in a passion.
"And you have evidently plotted the ruin of an innocent boy," said Mrs.
Gilbert, with spirit.
"You have always pretended to be poor," continued Colonel Ross, "and nowyou expect me to believe that your son owns nearly three hundreddollars' worth of bonds!"
"I do, for it is true."
"Where did he get them?"
"They were given him."
"Utterly absurd! People don't often give boys such presents as that.
Constable, I call on you to arrest that boy."
"Where is your warrant, Colonel?"
"Arrest him on suspicion."
"I could not do it."
"Then you mean to connive at his escape?"
"No; I'll stay here to-night, if you insist upon it."
"Do so, and I will take the bonds."
"Lay them down, Colonel Ross; they are my property!" said Harry, sternly.
"You can't be allowed to take 'em, Colonel, till you prove that they areyours. One you admit is not," said the constable.
"It doesn't matter much," replied the Colonel, discomfited. "They willfind their way back to me soon. This boy won't take on so high a tonetomorrow."
CHAPTER XXXVIII
PHILIP'S SURPRISE
"Where did that other bond come from?" thought Colonel Ross, as hewended his way homeward. "I can't understand it. Perhaps the boy took itfrom some one else. It is just possible that his mother may have owned afifty-dollar bond."
To do Colonel Ross justice, he really thought that the bonds he haddiscovered were his own, and he was convinced, by what his son had toldhim, that Harry had really entered his house on the night when the outerdoor had been left open and abstracted them.
Philip, disappointed at not finding his friend Congreve at the hotel, took his way home, and was already in the house when his fatherreturned. He was naturally curious to hear something of the result ofhis errand.
"Well, father," he said, eagerly, as the Colonel entered the room wherehe was seated, "what luck did you have?"
"I found the bonds," said his father, briefly.
Nothing could have astonished Philip more, knowing what he did as tothe manner in which they had really been disposed of. He looked thepicture of amazement.
"Found the bonds!" he ejaculated.
"Certainly! What is there remarkable about that?"
"And Harry Gilbert really had them?" said Philip, not knowing what tothink.
"Of course!"
"Where were they found?"
"In the bureau drawer in his mother's room."
"What can it mean?" thought Philip, in a whirl of amazement. "I gavethem to Congreve to carry to New York, and how in the world couldGilbert have got hold of them? There must be some mistake somewhere."
"What did Harry say when you found the bonds?" he asked.
"He denied that they were mine; said they were his."
"But where could he get them?"
"That is the question. He said they were given to him, or some suchridiculous nonsense, and his mother actually backed him up in thispreposterous statement."
"I was never so astonished in the whole course of my life!" said Philip; and he spoke the honest truth.
"You, my son, are entitled to great credit for your vigilance, and youapprising me that the boy was prowling about the house on the evening inquestion. I shall make you a present of ten dollars."
"Oh, thank you, father," said Philip, his eyes expressing his delight, as his father drew from his pocketbook two five-dollar bills and placedthem in his hand.
"At any rate, it has turned out pretty lucky for me," he thought tohimself. "All the same, it is a puzzle where those bonds came from. Congreve wouldn't go and give them to Harry? No, of course not! Well, the best I can do is to keep mum."
"There is one circumstance that rather puzzles me," said the Colonel, reflectively.
"What is it, father?"
"I only miss two hundred-dollar bonds, and I found in the boy'spossession a fifty-dollar bond in addition. That is certainlysingular."
"So it is," said Philip, showing his own surprise.
"He must have stolen that from some other party," continued the
Colonel.
"As like as not," chimed in Philip, glibly. "Have you got the bonds withyou?" he asked, after a pause. "Did you bring them back?"
"No. Rogers, the constable, said I could not take them till I had provedthem to be my property. He is a stupid old countryman, and knows nothingabout law. He was evidently prejudiced in favor of the Gilberts."
"Well, what did you do with Harry?"
"He ought to have been taken to the lockup, but the constable didn'twant to do it, and I agreed that he might stay in the house, under guardof the constable, of course, for I apprehended the boy might make aneffort to run away."
"Did he seem much frightened?" asked Philip, curiously.
"No; he seemed very indignant at being suspected. Of course, it was allput on. He was actually insolent, and defied me to take the bonds. Isuppose he thought he could put me off the scent by his bravado."
"What are you going to do to-morrow?" asked Philip.
"I shall have him taken before a magistrate, and shall formally chargehim with the theft."
"What did Uncle Obed say?" inquired Philip, suddenly.
"It really is of very little consequence what that old man said," returned Colonel Ross, stiffly. "Of course, he sided with the Gilberts, and he actually had the effrontery to say that the bonds had been in thehouse for several days."
"He couldn't have given the bonds to Harry, could he?"
"Of course not. The man is a pauper, or about the same as one. Every day
I expect he will come to me to ask pecuniary assistance."
"Will you give him any money if he does?"
"Yes; enough to get him back to Illinois. He ought never to have leftthere."
Philip went to bed in a state of wonderment, but at the same time in astate of satisfaction. Suspicion had been diverted from him, the realculprit, and the boy whom he hated more than any other was likely tosuffer for his misdeeds.
If he had had a conscience, this thought ought to have made himuncomfortable, but it did not. He thought, rather, that under cover ofthis charge made against another, he and Congreve would be free to usethe proceeds of the stolen bonds, and he began even to plan in what wayhe would spend his portion.
Meanwhile, a very different scene took place in the cottage of the
Gilberts, after the Colonel had taken his leave.
"I hope, Mr. Rogers," said Mrs. Gilbert to the constable, "you don'tbelieve my boy guilty of this base deed which the colonel charges uponhim?"
"I've always thought highly of Harry, ma'am," said the constable, "and Ican't think now he'd take anything that wasn't his; but it is ratherstrange that them bonds should be found in this house now, ain't it?"
"No, indeed. Is the Colonel the only man in town that owns bonds?"
"I expect not; though, so far as my own experience goes, I know I ain'tgot any. I always thought – begging your pardon, Mrs. Gilbert – that youwas poor, and now what am I to think?"
"You needn't think I am rich; but Harry owns those bonds, and they arethe reward of his own good conduct. Would you like to hear how he cameby them?"
"Yes, ma'am, if you don't mind telling me."
"I don't mind telling you, though I didn't choose to tell the Colonel."
Whereupon, Mrs. Gilbert related the story of the tin box secreted in thewood, and how, through Harry's prompt action, those who had purloined ithad been brought to justice.
"You've got a smart boy, Mrs. Gilbert," said the constable, admiringly. "I couldn't have done as well myself. There won't be any difficulty inclearing Harry now."
"What would you advise, Mr. Rogers?"
"Nothing at present; but if we find it necessary to-morrow, we can getthat lawyer's testimony, which will certainly clear Harry of thischarge."
CHAPTER XXXIX
HOW CONGREVE SUCCEEDED
Philip would not have felt flattered if he had been able to read thethoughts of his friend James Congreve, when the latter was riding awayfrom the village where he had been boarding, toward the great city.
"That's the last I shall ever see of the young snob, I hope," he said tohimself. "I've got all I can out of him, and now I wash my hands of him. I wish him joy of waiting for me to-night. It'll be many a long daybefore he sees me or the balance of the bonds."
James Congreve settled back in his seat, bought a paper from the paperboy on the train, and began to read in a very comfortable frame ofmind.
From time to time he put his hand on the inside pocket in which he hadplaced the bonds, to make sure of their safety, for no one knew betterthan he that there were dishonest persons to be met with who werewilling to appropriate valuables belonging to others.
It was some time since he had been so well off as he would be when hehad converted these bonds into money. Indeed, all the summer long he hadbeen short of funds, or he would not have spent so long a time in acountry village, which to him was dull and afforded him a small fieldfor his peculiar talents.
Arriving in New York, Congreve took his way to Wall Street. Here it wasthat he expected to get rid of the bonds, or, rather, exchange them forgreenbacks.
In this street brokers' and bankers' offices abound, and all negotiablesecurities readily find a purchaser. He stepped into an office nearlyopposite the opening of New Street, and, approaching the counter, said, as he drew out his bonds:
"What are you paying for government sixes?"
"Let me see the date," said the clerk. He spread open the bonds, andthen answered: "One hundred and fifteen and three-eighths."
"Very well," replied Congreve. "I will sell them."
The clerk took them and stepped to the desk, to make an entry of thepurchase.
"What name?" he asked, turning to Congreve.
"John Baker," said Congreve, with momentary hesitation.
For obvious reasons, he thought it best not to mention his own name, astrouble might possibly come from the possession of the bonds.
"Shall I give you a check?" was the next question.
"I would prefer the money," answered Congreve.
"Go to the cashier's window, and he will attend to you."
"Not much trouble about that," thought Congreve, complacently, when hewas startled by a voice at his elbow.
"How are you, Congreve?"
Looking around hastily, he saw a hand extended, and recognized a youngman who had at one time been a fellow-boarder with him in FourteenthStreet. It is safe to say that James Congreve wished him anywhere elseat that most unfortunate time.
"Hush!" said he, in a subdued whisper; "I will speak to you outside."
He hoped the clerk had not heard the name by which he had beenaddressed; but he hoped in vain. The latter, pausing in his writing, came to the counter and said:
"Didn't this gentleman call you Congreve?"
"Yes," admitted Congreve, uneasily.
"You just gave your name as John Baker."
"Oh, no! That is, I didn't say my name was John Baker. That is thegentleman for whom I am selling the bonds."
"Then they do not belong to you?"
"No."
"Where does Mr. Baker live?"
"In New Haven," answered Congreve, glibly, for he had a readyinvention.
"We do not care to buy," said the clerk, coldly, for there was somethingin Congreve's manner which made him suspicious.
"Really," said Congreve, laughing in a constrained manner, "you appearto be very cautious."
"We have to be."
"Shall I tell Mr. Baker it will be necessary for him to come to New Yorkin person to dispose of his bonds? He is my uncle, and I simply am doinghim a favor in disposing of them."
"Very possibly; but I think we won't purchase them."
"Oh, well! I can carry them elsewhere," said Congreve, raging inwardly.
His acquaintance, whose recognition had interfered with his plans, followed him to the door, in rather a perplexed frame of mind.
"Where have you been all summer, Congreve?" he asked, thinking it bestto ignore the scene which he had just witnessed.
"None of your business," answered Congreve, sharply.
"What does this mean?" asked the young man, in astonishment.
"It means, sir, that I do not wish to keep up my acquaintance with you. Didn't you know any better than to blurt out my name just now, and soget me into trouble?"
"If you are ashamed to appear under your real name, I don't care to knowyou," answered the young man, with spirit. "So, good-morning to you, Mr. Congreve, or Mr. Baker, or whatever else you call yourself."
"Good riddance," said Congreve.
"There's something wrong about that fellow," said Tom Norcross tohimself, as he looked after Congreve, while the latter was crossing thestreet. "I don't believe he came by those bonds honestly. His manner wascertainly very suspicious."
Congreve entered another banking house, and here he had no difficulty indisposing of his bonds. He came out with two hundred and thirty dollarsin his pocket, and feeling less irritable than before.
"So that's done," he said to himself, "and I am well provided with moneyfor the present. Now I must make up for lost time, and try to enjoymyself a little. I was nearly moped to death in that dull countryvillage, with no better company than a young snob. Now to see life!"
First of all, Congreve installed himself at a fashionable boarding houseuptown. Then he purchased a seat for the evening's performance atWallack's Theater, and then sought out some of his old companions inhaunts where he knew they were likely to be found. He had a few games ofcards, in which his luck varied. He rose from the card table a loser inthe sum of twenty-five dollars.
"That is unlucky," thought Congreve. "However, I've got two hundreddollars left. I must be more cautious, or my money won't last long."
Still, he felt in tolerably good spirits when he went to the theater, and enjoyed the performance about as much as if his pleasures werebought with money honestly earned.
It so happened that the clerk at the first banking house who had refusedto purchase the bonds sat two rows behind him, and easily recognized hiscustomer of the morning.
"I suspect Mr. Baker, alias Congreve, has disposed of his bonds," hethought to himself. "I am really curious to know whether he had anyright to sell them."
From time to time this thought came back to the clerk, till he formed aresolution quietly to follow Congreve, after the close of theperformance, and ascertain where he lived.
Congreve, seated in front, was not aware of the presence of the clerk, or he might have taken measures to defeat his design.
When James Congreve left the theater, he was at first inclined to stopat Delmonico's on the way uptown, and indulge in a little refreshment; but he felt somewhat fatigued with his day's travel, and, after amoment's indecision, concluded instead to return at once to his boardingplace.
"He lives in a nice house," said the clerk to himself. "Let me noticethe number. I may find it desirable to know where to find him."
To anticipate matters a little, word came to New York in the afternoonof the next day that two bonds, the numbers of which were given, hadbeen stolen from Colonel Ross, and search was made for the young man whowas suspected of having negotiated them. The clerk, who, previous toreturning the bonds to Congreve, had taken down the numbers, at onceidentified them as the ones referred to, and gave information to thepolice.
The result was that just as Congreve was sitting down to supper on theevening of the second day, he was informed that a man wished to see himat the door. On answering the call, he saw before him a small man, ofquiet manner, dressed in a sober suit of black.
"You name is Congreve, I believe?" he said, politely,
"Yes, sir," answered James, in a hesitating tone.
"Then I must trouble you to go with me."
"I have just sat down to supper."
"I am really sorry to disturb you, but you are charged with selling twostolen bonds in Wall Street yesterday."
"There is some mistake," said Congreve, hurriedly. "Colonel Ross sent methe bonds by his son, with a request that I would sell them for him."
"Glad to hear it," said the detective, laconically. "Then you will beable to clear yourself. Meanwhile, you must come with me."
And James Congreve spent the night in a boarding house by no meansfashionable.