I've giving you
your chance, I say!"

"I have no more idea where that coin is than you have, Mr. Starr. I
never touched it. I have already told the whole truth, so far as I know
facts."

"Now listen, Vaniman! This town is already _down_! If that gold isn't
recovered this bank failure will put the town _out_! The folks are ugly.
They're talking. Britt says they believe you have hidden the money!"

"He does say it!" Vaniman fairly barked the words. "No doubt he has been
telling 'em so!"

Starr proceeded remorselessly. "I have heard all the gossip about the
trouble between you and Britt. But that gossip doesn't belong in this
thing right now. Vaniman, you know what a country town is when it turns
against an outsider! If you go before a jury on this case--and that
money isn't in sight--you don't stand the show of a wooden latch on the
back door of hell's kitchen! They'll all come to court with what they
can grub up in the way of brickbats--facts, if they can get 'em, lies,
anyway! Come, come, now! Dig up the coin!"

Starr's bland persistency in taking for granted the fact that Vaniman
was hiding the money snapped the overstrained leash of the cashier's
self-restraint. In default of a general audience of the hateful Egyptian
vilifiers, he used Starr as the object of his frenzied vituperation.

Mr. Starr listened without reply.

As soon as it was apparent to the bank examiner that the cashier did
not intend to take advantage of the chance that had been offered, Starr
marched to the door, opened it, and called. The corridor, it seemed, was
serving as repository for various properties required in the drama
which Mr. Starr had staged that day. The man who entered wore a gold
badge--and a gold badge marks the high sheriff of a county. Starr handed
a paper to the officer. "Serve it," he commanded, curtly.

The sheriff walked to Vaniman and tapped him on the shoulder. "You're
under arrest."

"Charged with what?"

"I'm making it fairly easy for you," explained, Starr, dryly, appearing
to be better acquainted with the nature of the warrant than the
sheriff was. "Burglary, with or without accomplices, might have been
charged--seeing that the coin has been removed--in the nighttime, of
course! But we're simply making the charge embezzlement!"

CHAPTER XVII

ON THE FACE OF IT

Squire Hexter arranged for Vaniman's bail, volunteering for that
service, frankly admitting that he "had seen it coming all along"! But
the