will take the bonds."

"Lay them down, Colonel Ross; they are my property!" said Harry,
sternly.

"You can't be allowed to take 'em, Colonel, till you prove that they are
yours. One you admit is not," said the constable.

"It doesn't matter much," replied the Colonel, discomfited. "They will
find their way back to me soon. This boy won't take on so high a tone
tomorrow."

CHAPTER XXXVIII

PHILIP'S SURPRISE

"Where did that other bond come from?" thought Colonel Ross, as he
wended his way homeward. "I can't understand it. Perhaps the boy took it
from some one else. It is just possible that his mother may have owned a
fifty-dollar bond."

To do Colonel Ross justice, he really thought that the bonds he had
discovered were his own, and he was convinced, by what his son had told
him, that Harry had really entered his house on the night when the outer
door had been left open and abstracted them.

Philip, disappointed at not finding his friend Congreve at the hotel,
took his way home, and was already in the house when his father
returned. He was naturally curious to hear something of the result of
his errand.

"Well, father," he said, eagerly, as the Colonel entered the room where
he was seated, "what luck did you have?"

"I found the bonds," said his father, briefly.

Nothing could have astonished Philip more, knowing what he did as to
the manner in which they had really been disposed of. He looked the
picture of amazement.

"Found the bonds!" he ejaculated.

"Certainly! What is there remarkable about that?"

"And Harry Gilbert really had them?" said Philip, not knowing what to
think.

"Of course!"

"Where were they found?"

"In the bureau drawer in his mother's room."

"What can it mean?" thought Philip, in a whirl of amazement. "I gave
them to Congreve to carry to New York, and how in the world could
Gilbert have got hold of them? There must be some mistake somewhere."

"What did Harry say when you found the bonds?" he asked.

"He denied that they were mine; said they were his."

"But where could he get them?"

"That is the question. He said they were given to him, or some such
ridiculous nonsense, and his mother actually backed him up in this
preposterous statement."

"I was never so astonished in the whole course of my life!" said Philip;
and he spoke the honest truth.

"You, my son, are entitled to great credit for your vigilance, and you
app