h, yes, I was only a few hundred feet away when the explosion took
place."

"There, didn't I say I saw him in the crowd?" exclaimed Uriah, eagerly.

"What were you doing in the crowd?"

"I wanted to see what was up."

"You didn't stay very long," said the constable, dryly.

"I couldn't. Mother was waiting for me."

"You are quite sure you weren't in the post office just before the
explosion occurred?"

"Why, of course I wasn't in the place! What are you driving at?"

"We found the pocketknife in the building--found it not ten feet from the
wrecked safe. It had been used, evidently, for ripping open some sealed
packages."

"My knife!" ejaculated Ralph.

"Exactly, Ralph," put in Bart Haycock. "But don't think I believe you
guilty, my boy," he went on, feelingly.

"Guilty of what?"

"Robbin' the post office!" cried Uriah Dicks. "He is guilty to my way of
thinkin'!"

"Robbing the post office!" ejaculated Ralph.

"That's it, Ralph," said the constable, seriously. "It has been discovered
that there were two men and a boy, and they think you were the boy."

"Me!" Ralph could hardly believe his ears. "Oh, Rodman, you don't mean it?"

"He does mean it!" said Uriah, sharply. "Wasn't your knife found there?"

"I must have dropped the knife in the office yesterday when I was hanging
up Mr. Dunham's circulars."

"Did you use the knife then?" asked Bart Haycock.

Ralph thought for a moment.

"Yes, I did. The cord was too long, and I remember taking out my knife and
cutting it."

"That wouldn't put the knife inside the postmaster's office," said Uriah.

Ralph looked at the knife again. It was really his--with his name carved on
the handle. There was no disputing that point.

"I can't understand it," he said. "But I can give you my word of honor that
I was not inside the building to-night."

"I guess Benjamin Hooker ain't taking your word for it," grumbled Uriah
Dicks. "He is responsible to the Government, an' he's goin' to find out who
robbed him, that's what he's goin' to do!"

"You had better come with me," said Jack Rodman. "You can tell your story
to Mr. Hooker and to Squire Paget."

"Better make a search around here first," suggested Uriah. "The men that
helped do the robbin' may be hiding here. Bart and I can hold Ralph so he
don't run away."

CHAPTER XIX.

ABOUT THE ROBBERY.

If Ralph had been astonished before, he was doubly so now. He looked from
one to another of the men in amaze