" Jed was even more
disturbed and distressed than before. "I--I told Sam I took it
and--and kept it. I TOLD him I did. What more does he want?
What's he goin' around tellin' folks I didn't for? What--"
"Hush, Jed! He knows you didn't take it. He knew it all the time
you were telling him you did. In fact he came into your shop this
afternoon to tell you that the Sage man over at Wapatomac had found
the four hundred dollars on the table in his sitting-room just
where the captain left it. Sage had just 'phoned him that very
thing. He would have told you that, but you didn't give him the
chance. Jed, I--"
But Jed interrupted. His expression as he listened had been
changing like the sky on a windy day in April.
"Here, here!" he cried wildly. "What--what kind of talk's that?
Do--do you mean to tell me that Sam Hunniwell never lost that money
at all? That all he did was leave it over at Wapatomac?"
"Yes, that's just what I mean."
"Then--then all the time when I was--was givin' him the--the other
money and tellin' him how I found it and--and all--he knew--"
"Certainly he knew. I've just told you that he knew."
Jed sat heavily down in the chair once more. He passed his hand
slowly across his chin.
"He knew!" he repeated. "He knew! . . ." Then, with a sudden gasp
as the full significance of the thought came to him, he cried:
"Why, if--if the money wasn't ever lost you couldn't--you--"
Charles shook his head: "No, Jed," he said, "I couldn't have taken
it.
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