to elicit the truth.

"I don't know. I thought there were five or six bills. It was a good
deal of money for him to have, anyhow. I didn't think much about it till
since we found this letter was lost."

"Didn't you, Ham Fishley?" said I, looking him right in the eye. "_You_
know very well that I didn't take that letter."

"I know it!" repeated he, trying to bluster; but I saw that it was hard
work.

"Yes, you know it, if your father don't."

"I don't see who could have taken it, if he didn't," added Ham, turning
to his father.

"Don't you, Ham?" I shouted, in my excitement.

"Of course he took it," said the postmaster. "He isn't willing to tell
where he got that money, which he don't deny having."

"I can't tell where I got it, without injuring some one else; but I most
solemnly declare that I did not steal it, nor take the letter."

"That's all in your eye," said Ham.

"It _was_ all in my eye the night the mail was robbed," I replied. "I
didn't do it; but I saw it done; and I know who did it, Ham Fishley."

"Humph! I shouldn't wonder if he meant to lay it to me, father!" added
Ham.

"That's just what I mean to do. I saw Ham take the money out of the
envelope, and then burn the letter."

"Well, that's a good one!" said Ham, laughing heartily; but his face was
pale, and his laugh hollow.

Captain Fishley looked at his son earnestly. Perhaps he saw the
unrealness of his mirth. Ham was extravagant in his demonstrations, and
so far overdid the matter, that even his father must have been troubled
with a suspicion that all was not right in relation to him.

"Buck Bradford, you have a large sum of money about you," said he. "Have
you not?"

"No matter how much," I answered.

"You have forty dollars. Will you deny it?"

"I will neither own nor deny it. I have nothing to say about it."

"Ham saw you have five or six bills. Now, you must tell me where you
got that money, or I shall believe you robbed the mail."

"I shall not tell you," I replied, firmly. "If it was right for me to do
so, I would; but it isn't right, and I can't."

"That's rich!" sneered Ham. "If you want any better evidence than that,
you will have to send to Texas after it. His trying to lay it to me is
the best proof I want."

"Ham Fishley, you know that what I have said is true," I continued
indignantly. "You know that you opened that mail-bag after you came home
from Crofton's, put the money in your pocket, and burned the letter."