ur statements."

"Thank you, sir," said Gibbon. "I'm ready to accept the consequences of
my act, but I don't want that scoundrel and traitor to go free."

"You can't prove anything against me," said Stark, doggedly, "unless
you accept the word of a self-confessed burglar, who is angry with me
because I would not join him."

"All these protestations it would be better for you to keep till your
trial begins, Mr. Stark," said the manufacturer. "However, I think
it only fair to tell you that I am better informed about you and your
conspiracy than you imagine. Will you tell me where you were at eleven
o'clock last evening?"

"I was in my room at the hotel--no, I was taking a walk. I had received
news of my mother's illness, and I was so much disturbed and grieved
that I could not remain indoors."

"You were seen to enter the office of this factory with Mr. Gibbon, and
after ten minutes came out with the tin box under your arm."

"Who saw me?" demanded Stark, uneasily.

Carl Crawford came forward and answered this question.

"I did!" he said.

"A likely story! You were in bed and asleep."

"You are mistaken. I was on watch behind the stone wall just opposite.
If you want proof, I can repeat some of the conversation that passed
between you and Mr. Gibbon."

Without waiting for the request, Carl rehearsed some of the talk already
recorded in a previous chapter.

Phil Stark began to see that things were getting serious for him, but he
was game to the last.

"I deny it," he said, in a loud voice.

"Do you also deny it, Mr. Gibbon?" asked Mr. Jennings.

"No, sir; I admit it," replied Gibbon, with a triumphant glance at his
foiled confederate.

"This is a conspiracy against an innocent man," said Stark, scowling.
"You want to screen your bookkeeper, if possible. No one has ever before
charged me with crime."

"Then how does it happen, Mr. Stark, that you were confined at the
Joliet penitentiary for a term of years?"

"Did he tell you this?" snarled Stark, pointing to Gibbon.

"No."

"Who then?"

"A customer of mine from Chicago. He saw you at the hotel, and informed
Carl last evening of your character. Carl, of course, brought the news
to me. It was in consequence of this information that I myself removed
the bonds from the box, early in the evening, and substituted strips of
paper. Your enterprise, therefore, would have availed you little even if
you had succeeded in getting off scot-free."

"I see th