secret information. It was well he did, for Phil
himself almost immediately came to the same window.

CHAPTER XXXIV

PHILIP GETS RID OF HIS PLUNDER

"Philip," said his mother, at the breakfast table the next morning, "the
servant tells me she found the outside door unlocked this morning.
Didn't I ask you to lock it before you went to bed?"

"So you did, mother. I really hope you'll excuse me. When I got ready to
go to bed, I forgot all about it."

"It might have proved serious," remarked his father, "for I found this
morning that I had left my bunch of keys on my desk. I don't see how I
came to be so negligent."

"It's lucky no burglar or dishonest person knew of it," said Mrs. Ross.
"You might have met with a serious loss."

"So I might, for I had about a thousand dollars' worth of government
bonds in my trunk, besides certificates of various kinds of stock. The
latter would have done no one any good, though the loss would have
annoyed me, but the government bonds might readily be sold."

"I shouldn't think you'd keep the trunk downstairs, father," said
Philip, who felt easy, as there seemed no likelihood of suspicion being
fixed upon him.

He resolved so to act as to divert any future suspicion.

"I don't know but it is imprudent," said Colonel Ross.

"Of course it is," said his wife. "You deserve to suffer loss."

"I will take it upstairs hereafter," said her husband, "especially," he
added, jocularly, "if Philip is to be trusted to lock the front door."

Philip smiled, but his smile was not exactly an easy one, for he was
every minute apprehensive that it would occur to his father to open the
trunk and examine the contents. He did not want this to happen till he
was out of the way, for it would be rather a trial to his nerves to hear
the announcement made of the loss, while he knew that the missing bonds
were concealed in his inside coat pocket.

Philip was in a hurry to see Congreve, and get rid of his troublesome
deposit. He hurried through his breakfast, therefore, and rose from the
table.

"You've eaten very little, Phil," said his mother.

"Oh, I'm not hungry," said Philip, carelessly. "I didn't get up early
enough to raise an appetite."

"You got up as early as usual," said his father.

"Perhaps reading in the evening didn't agree with me," replied Philip,
smiling.

"Where are you going?" asked his mother.

"Just out for a walk."

"Will you cal