n the table?"

"Done up in this buff envelope, just as you see them here, sir," replied
the cashier.

The president looked at him as though he may have had a sudden
inspiration; but remembering that another was present he refrained from
saying what was on his mind.

Turning to Dick he continued to question him.

"Richard, you understand that while circumstances may put you under a
cloud for a brief time, if you are innocent of wrong doing, as I firmly
believe, you have nothing to fear. Such a bold crime cannot be committed
without the thief leaving some trace of his identity behind him. I shall
doubtless find it necessary to send to the city for an officer to come
up here and take up the investigation. You will not hesitate to tell him
everything he wishes to know, will you?"

"I have nothing to hide, Mr. Gibbs. Some one certainly took those
securities, and I would give a great deal to be the one to find them. I
have told my mother all about this trouble, sir. Of course, she believes
that it would be impossible for me to take anything that did not belong
to me, and especially such valuable papers as these were; but she is my
mother, you know, sir."

"Yes, I understand that, Richard. Of course the only temptation that
might urge a boy, brought up as you have been, to do something of this
sort would be the desire to place his mother beyond want. I have no
doubt the officer will lay considerable stress upon the fact that you
have found yourselves in straightened circumstances of late, and that
you could not bear to see her suffer."

"That is all ended, sir," said Dick, smiling, for he knew what a bolt he
was about to launch in another moment.

"How do you mean, Richard?" asked the president, curiously.

"We have come into some money, left by a relative in Boston so far
removed that my mother hardly remembered her name, sir."

"What! come into some money? Indeed!" and the president, just as Dick
expected, shot an alarmed glance across at Mr. Goodwyn, who also looked
very serious.

"Yes, sir, and you can well believe that it was welcome, too," Dick went
on.

"About how much did this sudden and surprising inheritance amount to,
Richard?" coldly.

"We do not know yet, but it will bring something like a thousand dollars
a year, which is enough to support us handsomely, sir," returned the
boy, smiling now at the mysterious looks exchanged between the two
gentlemen.

"Interest at four per cent, on about twenty-