"Do you feel all right?" asked Jack anxiously.
"Oh, yes. Very well. I never fainted before, that I remember."
"Yes, you did. Once when you burned your hand on the stove,"
corrected Jack.
"Oh, that was a good while ago."
There was a period of silence.
"Well, as long as I started to pump up the tire I suppose I may as well finish," remarked Walter, as he took out the jack and raised the wheel.
It was rather a quiet company of young people who made their way back to Chelton in the two autos a little later. The gay members of the mandolin club had little to say, and when they did attempt a pleasantry the laughter was soon over. Every once in a while some one would refer to the discovery of the empty wallet.
"The next thing to find," remarked jack, with a trace of bitterness in his tones, "is the person with the cash and the bonds."
"Maybe they"re in--the tool--box of your car," said Didd.i.c.k jestingly. "It may run in the family--"
Then he was conscious that he had made rather a bad "break," and he subsided, while every one tried to talk at once to cover it up. Jack laughed uneasily, and Cora seemed annoyed.
One thought was running through the mind of both Cora and her brother. Who could it have been who tried to injure her in this way by throwing suspicion on her, and what could have been their motive?
She tried to reason certain things out. She went over in detail, while Walter was driving her car for her, every incident that she could remember in connection with the collision and the subsequent loss of the money.
She speculated on the actions of every one. Mary"s desire to leave the car at the post-office and not go back to her shop was odd, Cora thought, though her employer had given Mary permission to go for a ride with such well-paying customers as the Kimb.a.l.l.s and the Robinson twins. Next Cora tried to a.n.a.lyze Sid"s actions, also those of Ida, and she even found herself wondering at Sid"s seeming intimacy with Lem Gildy. But it all came to nothing. There was still that unanswered question: "Who took the money from the wallet?"
That the same person did so who had placed the empty pocketbook in the tool-box seemed evident.
Jack and Cora went together to tell Ed. Walter wanted to accompany them, but Cora insisted that she be allowed to tell the story first.
"Later Ed may want to question you," she declared.
The three members of the mandolin club were left at the Kimball home until Cora and Jack returned.
Ed at first was much startled by the news. Then he opened the wallet.
"They didn"t leave anything," he said slowly.
"Is that all you want to remark?" asked Jack.
"All? Why, of course. What else can I say?"
"Well, don"t you think--not to put too fine a point upon it--that it looks suspicious?"
"For whom?"
"Us--Cora," said Jack bluntly.
"Look here," began Ed fiercely; "if it wasn"t you who said that--say--look here--Oh, what nonsense! I hope, Cora, that you haven"t for one moment thought that I would have the least suspicion against you."
"I--er--I--of course I didn"t," she finished quickly. "Only Jack thought it looked queer."
"How foolish!" exclaimed Ed. "Why, it would be the easiest thing in the world for the thief to throw the empty pocketbook into your tool-box as the car was pa.s.sing him in the street. The box isn"t kept locked, is it?"
"No; not always."
"Then that"s how it happened. The thief is around Chelton--that"s evident. In order to divert suspicion he--"
"Or she," interrupted Jack with a smile.
"Yes, or she, if you like--he or she opened the box when your car was halted momentarily in the street, and dropped the wallet in.
It"s as simple as can be."
"But not so simple to find the thief," retorted Jack.
"Indeed not," agreed Ed with a rueful smile. "But I"ll give the police this clue. It"s a good one, I should think."
"And if they want to arrest me--why, I"ll be at home," declared Cora with a laugh. "Would you like to see Walter?"
"No; you have told me all that is necessary."
Cora and Jack made a quick run back home, while Ed, went to communicate to the police the latest clue.
That evening, when Jack, Cora and the three college lads went down to the post-office, Cora happened to look in the window of the millinery shop where Mary Downs was employed. She was surprised to see on the big plate gla.s.s a sign: "Apprentice Wanted."
"That"s odd," she mused. "I didn"t suppose that Madam Julia could use two apprentices. I wonder if Mary has been discharged--for taking that ride with me. I must inquire."
The mail was late, and as the young people waited for it to be sorted they heard in the crowd talk indicating that the news of the finding of the empty wallet was known. Ed had told the police, and several reporters had also heard of the matter.
"Well, it"s a very strange and romantic affair," remarked Angelina Bott, a sentimental sort of girl, to her chum, Alice Haven. "It would make quite a story."
"For the detectives--yes," a.s.sented Alice. Then, speaking so loudly that Cora could not help but hear, she added: "I guess hiders make the best finders, after all."
Cora"s face turned red. Jack, with an angry retort on his lips, stepped forward, but his sister laid a detaining hand on his arm.
"Don"t, Jack," she begged.
"But it"s as good as saying you took it."
"I know; but--but, Jack, there will be more or less of--suspicion."
Jack swallowed a lump in his throat. He glared at Alice Haven, who looked coldly at him and then turned away.
Just then the windows were opened, indicating that the mail was sorted, and there was a rush on the part of the waiting crowd. Alice and Angelina were swallowed up in it.
Cora, with bitterness in her heart, turned aside. There were tears in her eyes, and she did not want Jack to see them.
As she looked down a corridor of the post-office, she saw a stooping figure hurrying along. It was that of Sid Wilc.o.x. And from another corridor, crossing the main one, came a girl, who joined him.