"You shall suffer for this outrage," she said to Mr. Bartlett several
times.

"I presume I shall have to stand for what I have done," he answered,
meekly. "Of one thing I am certain, Mrs. Bangs. Your husband has those
papers, or else he has destroyed them."

"You can say what you please, Mr. Bangs is an honest man and a
gentleman," retorted the fashionable woman.

At last there was nothing left to do but to leave the mansion, which
Mr. Bartlett did with reluctance.

"I am afraid I have made a mess of it," he said to his lawyer. "I was
certain we would find those papers."

"I am afraid you have hurt your case, Mr. Bartlett," answered the legal
light, bluntly. "Bangs will now be on his guard and will take good care
to keep those papers away from you."

"Perhaps he has destroyed them."

"That is not unlikely, since it would do him small good to keep them."

"What do you advise me to do next?"

"You had better wait and see what develops," said the lawyer.

The safe opener and the constable were paid off and Philip Bartlett
returned to Albany in anything but a happy frame of mind. A day or two
later he called upon Randy, when the steamboat tied up at the dock for
the night.

"My fat is in the fire," he said to our hero, and told of his failure
to locate the missing documents.

"Mr. Bartlett, I am sure Mr. Bangs said the papers were in his safe!"
cried Randy. "He must have taken them out when he returned home."

"You can be a witness if the matter is brought into court?"

"Of course. I remember very well all I heard."

"Well, that is something," answered Philip Bartlett, hopefully.

He went home and the next day received a strong letter from Amos Bangs
denouncing him for the action he had taken. Part of the letter ran as
follows:

"I should sue you for damages, only I do not wish to drag you into
court on account of your wife and family. In the future you need
expect no favors from me. I am done with you. If you want to sell
your stock in the iron company I will give you the market price,
not a cent more. Remember, I shall be on my guard against you in
the future, and if you dare to molest me again you shall take the
consequences."

"He will do what he can to ruin us," said Mrs. Bartlett when her
husband read the letter to her.

"I suppose so."

"What is the market price of the stock?"

"It has no regular market value now. Bangs will buy it for about ten
cents on the dol