. "You seem to have your
mind well made up as to what we'd better not say. I may have to eat
state-prison grub again, and I'll need my teeth. Won't you kindly drop a
hint as to what would suit you in the line of talk?"

"You can tell me whether you think I'm handing you the truth or not."

"I think you are," agreed Bill, readily.

"So do I," asserted Tom.

"How about you, Wagg?" Vaniman demanded, resolved on clearing the matter
up once for all.

But the lethargic Mr. Wagg was manifestly unable to turn his slow wits
on the single track of the mind and start them off in the opposite
direction.

"No matter about him now," said the short man. "Give his mind time. A
toadstool grows fast after it gets started."

This meek surrender helped Vaniman to regain his poise. "If you're
willing to take the truth from me, men, I'll meet you halfway. You have
been frank and open with me. Men who pretend to be better than you, they
have lied to me and about me. That's why I was sent to state prison."

"Tom and I couldn't do business like we do if we lied to folks of our
kind. Didn't we cash in our word to the trusty? Being in the hole, as
you are right now, you'll excuse me for saying that we consider you one
of our kind."

"Thank you," returned the young man, accepting that statement at face
value.

The short man lighted a cigarette and pondered for a few moments. "You
didn't take the money. Tom and I believe what you say. Wagg will catch
up with the procession later. All right, Vaniman! But seeing how anxious
you were to get out and up here, it's likely that you have a pretty
good idea as to who did take the money. If you need any help in squaring
yourself, I'll call your attention to the fact that here are a couple of
gents who have a little spare time on their hands."

Vaniman was then in no mood to balance the rights and the wrongs of the
case. "I have started in on the basis of the whole truth, and I'm coming
through, men. I'm following your lead. I was framed in that bank matter.
There was a man who had the opportunity to exchange junk for that gold.
He made that opportunity for himself by working on my good nature. The
man is Tasper Britt, who was the president of that bank. He took the
money. He knows where it is."

"Do you think he is the only one who knows?"

"Naturally, he wouldn't be passing the word around."

"You're a bank man--you had the run of the premises--you had a chance to
know the general style of