ve them to me."

Sam thrust his hand into the breast-pocket of his closely-buttoned coat,
and glancing in sidewise, he drew out a folded paper.

"That it?" he said coolly, as he handed it to his father, watching him
keenly the while.

"That? Absurd!" said James Brandon, taking it and tossing it back.
"The agreement for letting a house. You don't mean to say--"

Sam interrupted him.

"Try that then," he said.

But again his father tossed the paper away with an angry ejaculation,
while his face grew more haggard and anxious-looking.

"That's it then," said Tom. "I had to grab them in a hurry, and get
away."

"That is not the packet," cried his father. "There were four deeds tied
up with green silk ribbon. I explained to you exactly what they were
like. Surely you had more common-sense than to think these things were
what I wanted!"

"Don't I tell you I had to take them in a hurry?" said Sam, smiling at
his father's anxious face, as he kept one hand still in his breast, and
now with a triumphant air flourished out a great cartridge paper
envelope. "There," he cried; "will that do then?"

"No, no, no," said James Brandon angrily; "four deeds tied up with green
silk ribbon, I tell you;" and he waved the thick envelope aside, but Sam
still held it out.

"Don't you be in such a hurry, gov'nor," he cried. "That's the packet,
only perhaps the old man put the deeds in the envelope. Look inside."

Sam's father snatched the packet from his son's hand, dragged out its
contents, which were tied together with green ribbon indeed, and proved
to be written in a round legal hand; but as he read the endorsements one
by one, he threw them contemptuously down with a groan.

"What, ain't those right?" cried the lad, speaking anxiously now.

"Right? No," cried his father. "There, I see you are playing with me.
Where is the right packet?"

"Right? The right packet? I made sure that was it. I opened that old
bureau of his, and these deeds and things were all together."

"Oh, Sam! Sam!" groaned his father.

"It was quite dark, you know, and I had to work by feel till I got the
drawers open, and then I lit a match or two, so as to make sure which
was the packet I wanted. There were the four things together tied up
with green silk ribbon, and I had no time to read them even if I'd
wanted to; but I felt so sure it was not necessary."

"It was madness. You ought to have looked carefully," said James
Brandon.