e.

But Mr. Ackerman did not heed the remark.

"I am afraid this looks pretty black for us, Ackerman," said Mr. Tolman
slowly. "We have nothing to give you but the boy's word."

Mr. Donovan, however, who had been studying the group with a hawklike
scrutiny now sprang to his feet and caught up his hat.

"I don't see how they dared put it over!" he exclaimed excitedly. "But
they almost got away with it. Even I was fooled."

"You don't mean to insinuate," Mr. Tolman burst out, "that you think
we--"

"Good heavens, no!" replied the detective with his hand on the door
knob. "Don't go getting hot under the collar, Mr. Tolman. Nobody is
slamming _you_. I have been pretty stupid about this affair, I'm afraid;
but give me credit for recognizing honest people when I see them. No,
somebody has tricked you--tricked you all. But the game isn't up yet. If
you gentlemen will just wait here--"

The sentence was cut short by the banging of the door. The detective was
gone. His departure was followed by an awkward silence.

Mr. Ackerman's face clouded into a frown of disappointment and anxiety;
Mr. Tolman paced the floor and puffed viciously at a cigar; and Steve,
his heart cold within him, looked from one to the other, chagrin,
mortification and terror in his eyes.

"I didn't open the pocketbook, Mr. Ackerman," he reiterated for the
twentieth time. "I truly didn't."

But the steamboat magnate was too deeply absorbed in his own thoughts
and speculations to notice the high-pitched voice with its intonation of
distress.

At last Mr. Tolman could endure the situation no longer.

"This is a most unfortunate happening, Ackerman," he burst out. "I am
more concerned about it than I can express. My boy and I are utter
strangers to you and we have no way of proving our honesty. All I can
say is that we are as much amazed at the turn affairs have taken as
yourself, and we regret it with quite as much poignancy--perhaps more
since it reflects directly upon us. If there is anything we can do--"

He stopped, awaiting a reply from the other man, but none came.

"Good heavens, Ackerman," he cried. "You don't mean to say you do not
believe my son and me--that you suspect us of double-dealing!"

"I don't know what to believe, Tolman," owned Mr. Ackerman with candor.
"I want very much to credit your story; in my heart, I do credit it. But
head and heart seem to be at variance in this matter. Frankly I am
puzzled to know where the content