fully proven in this letter. Let them call up the firm if
they want; you have nothing to fear from any exposure. Come, we will get
back to the bank as fast as possible. I want to see the face of that old
reptile when he learns that the letter has been found, just as you
said," by which rather severe epithet he undoubtedly meant Mr. Graylock,
whose evident animosity toward the bank boy he must have noticed.

"I am glad the letter didn't blow further, and get in the water, for
then we never could have found it; but after all it wouldn't have
mattered much in the end. They would have learned that I never sent a
single letter to that firm, and that I was unknown to them," remarked
Dick, as he trudged along at the side of the teller, whose eagerness to
produce the proof of the boy's innocence in so far as his accounting for
that envelope went was urging him to walk unusually fast.

So they came presently to the bank.

Mr. Goodwyn jumped up out of his chair when the two burst into his
little room.

The teller was waving the paper ahead of him, but his eyes were fixed
upon the face of Mr. Graylock, and he was quick to see the look of keen
disappointment that passed over it.

"You found it, then?" asked the cashier, reaching out his hand eagerly.

"Yes, lodged in the bushes, just as Dick said. And I think it will fully
substantiate all he claimed, sir," replied the teller.

"Like enough he wrote it himself, and all this is a dodge gotten up by a
clever young scamp," grumbled the merchant.

"For shame, Mr. Graylock; at least give the boy the benefit of the
doubt," said the teller, indignantly.

"If he didn't take the securities, then who did?" snapped the other,
angrily.

"Time will prove that, sir," remarked Mr. Winslow, slowly, and it
interested him to see the old man look confused, as though he saw in the
answer a sterling reproof.

Meanwhile the cashier had read the letter from beginning to end.

He now looked up, and there was an expression of relief on his face as
he said:

"This letter seems to be genuine beyond the shadow of a doubt, Richard,
and it proves your assertion that you have a friend in the employ of
this broker; but to make assurance doubly certain I think I had better
call them up on the 'phone and ask if they have ever had any dealings
with any one by the name of Richard Morrison. You have the numbers of
those securities with you, of course, Mr. Graylock, for I may as well
ask them at the sa