h was right when she said you did not steal
the bonds out of your father's desk?"

As he paused and looked me in the face, I was obliged to make some
reply. I chose one of the non-committal sort.

"Don't ask me!" I murmured, turning away with every appearance of
profound agitation.

He did not suspect the ruse.

"But, my boy, I shall have to ask you; if I am to help you out of this
scrape, I must know the truth. Yet if it is as I suspect, I can see why
you should hesitate even now. You are a generous fellow, Joe, but even
generosity can be carried past its proper limits."

"Uncle," I exclaimed, leaning over him and whispering tremulously in his
ear, "what are your suspicions? If I hear you give utterance to them,
perhaps it will not be so hard for me to speak."

He hesitated, looked all about us with a questioning glance, put his
mouth to my ear, and whispered:

"If I should use the name of Hartley in connection with what I have to
say, would you be so very much surprised?"

With a quick semblance of emotion, I drew back.

"You think--" I tremulously commenced, and as suddenly broke off.

"That it was he who did it, and that you, knowing how your father loved
him and built his hopes upon him, bore the blame of it yourself."

"Ha!" I exclaimed, with a deep breath as of relief. The suspicions of
Uncle Joe were worth hearing.

He seemed to be satisfied with the ejaculation, and with an increase of
eagerness in his tone, went quickly on:

"Am I not right, my boy? Is not this the secret of your whole conduct
from that dreadful day to this?"

"Don't ask me," I again pleaded, taking care, however, to draw a step
nearer and exclaim in almost the same breath: "Why should you think it
must necessarily have been one of us? What did _you_ know that you
should be so positive it was either he or I who committed this
dishonest action?"

"What did I know? Why, what everybody else did. That your father,
hearing a noise in his study one night, rose up quietly and slipped to
the door of communication in time to hear a stealthy foot leave the room
and proceed down the hall toward the apartment usually occupied by you
and your brother; that, alarmed and filled with vague distrust, he at
once lit the lamp, only to discover his desk had been forcibly broken
into and a number of coupon bonds taken out; that, struck to the heart,
he went immediately to the room where you and your brother lay, found
him lying quiet, and to all