He went out. The door of the outer shop slammed. Jed wiped the perspiration from his forehead and groaned helplessly and hopelessly.
The captain had reached the gate when he saw Phillips coming along the road toward him. He waited until the young man arrived.
"h.e.l.lo, Captain," hailed Charles. "So you decided not to come back to the bank this afternoon, after all?"
His employer nodded. "Yes," he said. "I"ve been kept away on business. Funny kind of business, too. Say, Charlie," he added, "suppose likely your sister and you would be too busy to see me for a few minutes now? I"d like to see if you"ve got an answer to a riddle."
"A riddle?"
"Um-hm. I"ve just had the riddle sprung on me and it"s got MY head whirlin" like a bottle in a tide rip. Can I come into your house for a minute and spring it on you?"
The young man looked puzzled, which was not surprising, but his invitation to come into the house was most cordial. They entered by the front door. As they came into the little hall they heard a man"s voice in the living-room beyond. It was Major Grover"s voice and they heard the major say:
"It doesn"t matter at all. Please understand I had no thought of asking. I merely wanted you to feel that what that fellow said had no weight with me whatever, and to a.s.sure you that I will make it my business to see that he keeps his mouth shut. As for the other question, Ruth--"
Ruth Armstrong"s voice broke in here.
"Oh, please," she begged, "not now. I--I am so sorry I can"t tell you everything, but--but it isn"t my secret and--and I can"t.
Perhaps some day-- But please believe that I am grateful, very, very grateful. I shall never forget it."
Charlie, with an anxious glance at Captain Hunniwell, cleared his throat loudly. The captain"s thoughts, however, were too busy with his "riddle" to pay attention to the voices in the living-room. As he and Phillips entered that apartment Major Grover came into the hall. He seemed a trifle embarra.s.sed, but he nodded to Captain Sam, exchanged greetings with Phillips, and hurried out of the house. They found Ruth standing by the rear window and looking out toward the sea.
The captain plunged at once into his story. He began by asking Mrs. Armstrong if her brother had told her of the missing four hundred dollars. Charles was inclined to be indignant.
"Of course I haven"t," he declared. "You asked us all to keep quiet about it and not to tell a soul, and I supposed you meant just that."
"Eh? So I did, Charlie, so I did. Beg your pardon, boy. I might have known you"d keep your hatches closed. Well, here"s the yarn, Mrs. Armstrong. It don"t make me out any too everlastin"
brilliant. A grown man that would shove that amount of money into his overcoat pocket and then go sa.s.shayin" from Wapatomac to Orham ain"t the kind I"d recommend to ship as cow steward on a cattle boat, to say nothin" of president of a bank. But confessin"s good for the soul, they say, even if it does make a feller feel like a fool, so here goes. I did just that thing."
He went on to tell of his trip to Wapatomac, his interview with Sage, his visit to the windmill shop, his discovery that four hundred of the fourteen hundred had disappeared. Then he told of his attempts to trace it, of Jed"s anxious inquiries from day to day, and, finally, of the scene he had just pa.s.sed through.
"So there you are," he concluded. "I wish to mercy you"d tell me what it all means, for I can"t tell myself. If it hadn"t been so-- so sort of pitiful, and if I hadn"t been so puzzled to know what made him do it, I cal"late I"d have laughed myself sick to see poor old Jed tryin" to lie. Why, he ain"t got the first notion of how to begin; I don"t cal"late he ever told a real, up-and-down lie afore in his life. That was funny enough--but when he began to tell me he was a thief! Gracious king! And all he could think of in the way of an excuse was that he stole the four hundred to buy a suit of clothes with. Ho, ho, ho!"
He roared again. Charlie Phillips laughed also. But his sister did not laugh. She had seated herself in the rocker by the window when the captain began his tale and now she had drawn back into the corner where the shadows were deepest.
"So there you are," said Captain Sam, again. "There"s the riddle.
Now what"s the answer? Why did he do it? Can either of you guess?"
Phillips shook his head. "You have got me," he declared. "And the money he gave you was not the money you lost? You"re sure of that?"
"Course I"m sure of it. In the first place I lost a packet of clean tens and twenties; this stuff I"ve got in my pocket now is all sorts, ones and twos and fives and everything. And in the second place--"
"Pardon me, just a minute, Captain Hunniwell. Where did he get the four hundred to give you, do you think? He hasn"t cashed any large checks at the bank within the last day or two, and he would scarcely have so much on hand in his shop."
"Not as much as that--no. Although I"ve known the absent-minded, careless critter to have over two hundred knockin" around among his tools and chips and glue pots. Probably he had some to start with, and he got the rest by gettin" folks around town and over to Harniss to cash his checks. Anthony Hammond over there asked me a little while ago, when I met him down to the wharf, if I thought Shavin"s Winslow was good for a hundred and twenty-five. Said Jed had sent over by the telephone man"s auto and asked him to cash a check for that much. Hammond said he thought "twas queer he hadn"t cashed it at our bank; that"s why he asked me about it."
"Humph! But why should he give his own money away in that fashion?
And confess to stealing and all that stuff? I never heard of such a thing."
"Neither did anybody else. I"ve known Jed all my life and I never can tell what loony thing he"s liable to do next. But this beats all of "em, I will give in."
"You don"t suppose--you don"t suppose he is doing it to help you, because you are his friend? Because he is afraid the bank--or you-- may get into trouble because of--well, because of having been so careless?"
Captain Sam laughed once more. "No, no," he said. "Gracious king, I hope my reputation"s good enough to stand the losin" of four hundred dollars. And Jed knows perfectly well I could put it back myself, if "twas necessary, without runnin" me into the poorhouse.
No, "tain"t for me he"s doin" it. I ain"t the reason."
"And you"re quite sure his story is ALL untrue. You don"t imagine that he did find the money, your money, and then, for some reason or other, change it with smaller bills, and--"
"Sshh, sshh, Charlie, don"t waste your breath. I told you I KNEW he hadn"t found the four hundred dollars I lost, didn"t I? Well, I do know it and for the very best of reasons; in fact, my stoppin"
into his shop just now was to tell him what I"d heard. You see, Charlie, old Sylvester Sage has got back from Boston and opened up his house again. And he telephoned me at two o"clock to say that the four hundred dollar packet was layin" on his sittin"-room table just where I left it when he and I parted company four days or so ago. That"s how I KNOW Jed didn"t find it."
From the shadowy corner where Ruth Armstrong sat came a little gasp and an exclamation. Charles whistled.
"Well, by George!" he exclaimed. "That certainly puts a crimp in Jed"s confession."
"Sartin sure it does. When Sylvester and I parted we was both pretty hot under the collar, havin" called each other"s politics about every mean name we could think of. I grabbed up my gloves, and what I thought was my money from the table and slammed out of the house. Seems all I grabbed was the two five hundred packages; the four hundred one was shoved under some papers and magazines and there it stayed till Sylvester got back from his Boston cruise.
"But that don"t answer my riddle," he added, impatiently. "What made Jed act the way he did? Got the answer, Charlie?"
The young man shook his head. "No, by George, I haven"t!" he replied.
"How about you, Mrs. Armstrong? Can you help us out?"
Ruth"s answer was brief. "No, I"m afraid not," she said. There was a queer note in her voice which caused her brother to glance at her, but Captain Hunniwell did not notice. He turned to go.
"Well," he said, "I wish you"d think it over and see if you can spy land anywheres ahead. I need a pilot. This course is too crooked for me. I"m goin" home to ask Maud; maybe she can see a light. So long."
He went out. When Charles returned, having accompanied his employer as far as the door, he found Ruth standing by her chair and looking at him. A glance at her face caused him to stop short and look at her.
"Why, Ruth," he asked, "what is it?"
She was pale and trembling. There were tears in her eyes.
"Oh, Charlie," she cried, "can"t you see? He--he did it for you."
"Did it for me? Did what? Who? What are you talking about, Sis?"
"Jed. Jed Winslow. Don"t you see, Charlie? He pretended to have found the money and to have stolen it just to save you. He thought you--he thought you had taken it."
"WHAT? Thought I had taken it? I had? Why in the devil should he think--"
He stopped. When he next spoke it was in a different tone.
"Sis," he asked, slowly, "do you mean that he thought I took this money because he knew I had--had done that thing at Middleford?
Does he know--about that?"
The tears were streaming down her cheeks. "Yes, Charlie," she said, "he knows. He found it out, partly by accident, before you came here. And--and think how loyal, how wonderful he has been!
It was through him that you got your opportunity there at the bank.
And now--now he has done this to save you. Oh, Charlie!"