'Twas an
hour later afore I went to my coat to get the cash. Then, as I
say, all I could find was the two five hundred packages. The four
hundred one was gone."
"Sho, sho! Tut, tut, tut! Where did you put the coat when you
took it off?"
"On the hook in the clothes closet where I always put it."
"Hum-m! And--er--when you told Nellie about it did you speak
loud?"
"Loud? No louder'n I ever do."
"Well--er--that ain't a--er--whisper, Sam, exactly."
"Don't make any difference. There wasn't anybody outside the
railin' that minute to hear if I'd bellered like a bull of Bashan.
There was nobody in the bank, I tell you, except the three men and
old Aunt Emmeline and they were waitin' in my private room. And
except for Nellie and Eddie Ellis, the messenger, and Charlie
Phillips, there wan't a soul around, as it happened. The money
hasn't been stolen; I lost it somewheres--but where? Well, I can't
stop here any longer. I'm goin' back to the bank to have another
hunt."
He banged out again. Fortunately he did not look at his friend's
face before he went. For that face had a singular expression upon
it. Jed sat heavily down in the chair by the bench. A vivid
recollection of a recent remark made in that very shop had suddenly
come to him. Charlie Phillips had made it in answer to a question
of his own.
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