"I hope it isn't anything that will take much time," hinted Fred.
"you know, sir, I've got to be at the field early this afternoon.
I am to pitch in one of the biggest-----"

"I'll try to be very brief," replied the lawyer, quietly. "Fred,
as you know, whenever I find I have more money about me than I
care to carry, I put it in the private safe upstairs. Your mother
and I have a place where we hide the key to that old-fashioned
safe. But, do you know, I have been missing some money from that
safe of late? Of course, it would be sheer impudence in me to
suspect your mother."

"Of course it would," agreed Fred, with feigned heartiness. He
was fighting inwardly to banish the pallor that he knew was creeping
into his cheeks.

"Have you any theory, Fred, that would help to account for the
missing of these sums of money?" pursued the lawyer, one hand
toying with a pencil.

"Do you suspect any of the servants?" asked the boy, quickly.

"We have had all our servants in the family for years," replied
the lawyer, "and it would seem hard to suspect any of them."

"Then whom can you suspect, sir?"

"Fred, do you know, I have had a quiet little idea. I am well
acquainted with the scrapes that young fellows sometimes get into.
My experience as a lawyer has brought me much in contact with
such cases. Now, it is a peculiar thing that young fellows often
get into very bad scrapes indeed in pursuing their peculiar ideals
of manliness. Fred, have you been getting into any scrapes?
Have you found out where your mother and I hide the key to the
safe? Have you been helping yourself to the money on the sly?"

These last three questions Lawyer Ripley shot out with great suddenness,
though without raising his voice.

The effect upon young Ripley was electrical. He sprang to his
feet, his face dramatically expressive of a mingling of intense
astonishment and hurt pride.

"Dad," he gasped, "how can you ask me such questions?"

"Because I want the answer, and a truthful one," replied the lawyer,
coolly. "Will you oblige me with the answer? Take your time,
and think deliberately. If you have made any mistakes I want
you to be fair and honorable with me. Now, what do you say, sir?"

Fred's mind had been working like lightning. He had come to the
conclusion that it would be safe to bluff his denial through to
the end.

"Father," he uttered, earnestly, in a voice into which he tried
to throw intense earnestness and s