Part 46 (2/2)

There lay the keys, and there stood the trunk.

He took the bunch of keys and selected a small one, which he thought likely to fit the trunk.

It did.

The lid was lifted, and Philip, with eager hand, took the envelope which he knew contained the government bonds. It was a bulky envelope, and contained probably eight or ten bonds.

Of course, Philip didn't venture to take all. He selected two, of one hundred dollars each, and replaced the others in the envelope, and afterward in the trunk.

He put the bonds in his inside coat pocket, and, hastily refastening the trunk, replaced the keys on his father's desk.

He breathed a sigh of relief to think the thing was done, and walked over to the window.

What was his gratification to see Harry Gilbert walking by on the other side of the street.

”All happens right,” he said. ”Now, Harry can't say he was at home. I'll fix him. I'll say I saw him at the window, looking in, and his denial won't amount to much, when he admits, as he will, that he was near the house.”

He would have felt differently had he seen the face of Tom Calder peering in at one of the side windows. Tom had spent the evening in the village, and was now on his return to his chamber, on the second floor of the stable. His attention was attracted by the light in the room, and, as the curtain was partly raised, he took the liberty of peering in, un.o.bserved.

”By gracious!” he exclaimed, in amazement. ”Phil is stealing gov'ment bonds from his father. He's a bad one, but I didn't think that of him.”

Tom slipped out, resolved to consider at his leisure what he had better do about imparting his secret information. It was well he did, for Phil himself almost immediately came to the same window.

CHAPTER x.x.xIV

PHILIP GETS RID OF HIS PLUNDER

”Philip,” said his mother, at the breakfast table the next morning, ”the servant tells me she found the outside door unlocked this morning.

Didn't I ask you to lock it before you went to bed?”

”So you did, mother. I really hope you'll excuse me. When I got ready to go to bed, I forgot all about it.”

”It might have proved serious,” remarked his father, ”for I found this morning that I had left my bunch of keys on my desk. I don't see how I came to be so negligent.”

”It's lucky no burglar or dishonest person knew of it,” said Mrs. Ross.

”You might have met with a serious loss.”

”So I might, for I had about a thousand dollars' worth of government bonds in my trunk, besides certificates of various kinds of stock. The latter would have done no one any good, though the loss would have annoyed me, but the government bonds might readily be sold.”

”I shouldn't think you'd keep the trunk downstairs, father,” said Philip, who felt easy, as there seemed no likelihood of suspicion being fixed upon him.

He resolved so to act as to divert any future suspicion.

”I don't know but it is imprudent,” said Colonel Ross.

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