You haven't found it, have you?"
Still Jed did not appear to comprehend. He had been wandering the
rose-bordered paths of fairyland and was not eager to come back to
earth.
"Eh?" he drawled. "You've--what?"
His friend's peppery temper broke loose.
"For thunder sakes wake up!" he roared. "I tell you I've lost four
hundred dollars of the fourteen hundred I told you I collected from
Sylvester Sage over to Wapatomac this mornin'. I had three
packages of bills, two of five hundred dollars each and one of four
hundred. The two five hundred packages were in the inside pocket
of my overcoat where I put 'em. But the four hundred one's gone.
What I want to know is, did it drop out when I took off my coat
here in the shop? Do you get that through your head, finally?"
It had gotten through. Jed now looked as troubled as his friend.
He rose hastily and went over to the pile of boards upon which
Captain Sam had thrown his coat upon entering the shop on his
previous visit that day. Together they searched, painstakingly and
at length. The captain was the first to give up.
"'Tain't here," he snapped. "I didn't think 'twas. Where in time
is it? That's what I want to know."
Jed rubbed his chin.
"Are you sure you had it when you left Wapatomac?" he asked.
"Sure? No, I ain't sure of anything. But I'd have sworn I did.
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