The Tin Box Part 57

"Go on," said the Colonel, haughtily.

"Colonel Ross," continued Harry, "do you generally keep a list of the numbers on your bonds?"

"Of course!"

"Can you furnish the numbers of the bonds that were taken from you?"

"I can give the numbers of the whole ten bonds. I don't know which were taken. I have not compared my list with those that remain."

"Have you the numbers with you?"

"Yes, I have them in my notebook."

"Will you be kind enough to repeat them so that the court may take them down?"

"Certainly! though I don't see what good that will do."

"It is of material importance," said the justice, nodding approval.

Colonel Ross drew from his inside coat pocket a large wallet, and, opening it, took out a memorandum, from which he read as follows:

"The numbers run from 17,810 to 17,817, inclusive."

"Then the stolen bonds are somewhere between those numbers?" said Harry.

"Of course."

Harry turned to the constable.

"Mr. Rogers," he said, "have you the bonds which were found at our house?"

"Yes," answered the constable.

"Will you hand them to Squire Davis, and ask him to read off the numbers?"

"You will do as Harry requests you," said the justice.

The constable placed the envelope in his hands, and Justice Davis, opening it, drew out three bonds.

"I find two one-hundred-dollar bonds," he said, "and one fifty-dollar bond."

"The two hundred-dollar bonds are mine," said Colonel Ross.

"That is, you claim them," said the justice, cautiously. "I will read the numbers.

"This one," he proceeded, unfolding one, "is numbered 9,867, and the other"--after a pause--"11,402. It strikes me, Colonel Ross, that you will have to look further for your bonds."

If such a dignified-looking man as Colonel Ross could look foolish, the Colonel looked so at that moment. He realized that he had made a ridiculous exhibition of himself, and he felt mortified to think that he had been so careless as not to have thought of comparing the numbers of the bonds the moment he had discovered them in Harry Gilbert's possession.

"Harry Gilbert is honorably discharged, and the bonds are restored to him," said the justice.

"Thank you, sir," said Harry, glancing not without natural exultation, at Colonel Ross and Philip.

Philip, by the way, looked as uncomfortable as his father.

Here there was an unexpected and startling interruption.

"I can tell Colonel Ross all about it!" said a distinct voice from near the door.

"Come forward then and give your information," said the justice.

This call was answered by Tom Calder, who elbowed his way to the front, dressed in his farm attire, and in his shirt sleeves.

Philip's face might have been observed to grow pale when he heard Tom's voice, and he looked decidedly sick when the boy walked up to give his testimony. Un.o.bserved by any one, for all eyes were fixed upon Tom, he edged to the door, and slipped out, in an agony of apprehension, for he foresaw what was coming.

"Proceed," said the justice.

"That night when the Colonel missed the bonds," began Tom, "I was coming home some time after nine, when I happened to look into the window, and there I saw Phil Ross with his father's little trunk open before him. I saw him take out a couple of bonds, and slip them into his inside pocket. Then he carefully locked the trunk again, laid the keys on the desk, and left the room. That's all I saw."

"It's a falsehood!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Colonel Ross, furiously.

"You just ask Phil about it, Colonel," said Tom, composedly.

Colonel Ross looked around for Philip, but no Philip was to be seen.

"I seed him slip out of the door just as Tom was beginnin' to talk,"

said a small urchin.

Overcome with mortification, and compelled to suspect that Tom's story was true, Colonel Ross hurried home, where he found Philip.

Sternly calling him to account, the Colonel extorted a confession, not only that he had taken the bonds, but what had become of them. The result was that information was sent to the police of New York, and James Congreve was arrested.

I may as well finish this part of the story by saying that Congreve was compelled to give up what remained of his ill-gotten gains, but Colonel Ross failed to prosecute him, because he could not do so without involving his own son also. It was only two months, however, before Congreve was detected in a more serious affair, for which he was forced to stand trial, and is even now serving a term of imprisonment, received as a penalty for the later crime.

As for Philip, he was so mortified and shamed by the exposure of his dishonesty, and his attempt to fix the crime upon another, that he asked his father to send him to a boarding school at a distance, and his request was complied with.

Tom Calder was immediately discharged by Colonel Ross, but within a week he was engaged elsewhere at an advanced salary. His new employer was Mr.

Obed Wilkins, better known to us as Uncle Obed.

If this statement excites surprise, I must refer my readers to the next chapter for an explanation.

CHAPTER XLII

CONCLUSION

The house of Colonel Ross was the finest in the village, with one exception. A certain Mr. Carrington, a city merchant, had, five years before, built a country villa surpa.s.sing it, a little distance away on the same street.