rs. I had sealed up the package,
and written my own name upon it, so that I had no fear it would be
taken by the junior partner. But he had exhibited a new phase of
character on this eventful day, and I trembled as I unlocked the
drawer. My fears were realized. The package was gone. Mr. Whippleton
had taken it.

This was a serious catastrophe.

I felt like sinking through the floor when I realized the loss. If it
had been my own I should have felt better. It was a sacred trust
confided to me, and I reproached myself for putting it into the safe.
Under ordinary circumstances, however, it would have been secure there.
The treasure had been given to me in order to keep it from him into
whose possession it had now fallen.

"What's the matter, Phil?" asked Robert, when he saw my grief and
chagrin.

"I have lost a valuable package," I replied.

"Was it done up in white paper?"

"Yes."

"Mr. Whippleton took it from one of the drawers, and put it in his
pocket."

"Did he open it?" I asked.

"No; not here."

I thought it was very strange that he should take a package, marked
"private," with my name upon it. But nothing that he did could now be
regarded as strange.

"When did he take it?" I inquired.

"Early this morning; as soon as you had gone to Mr. Collingsby's."

"The first time?"

"Yes; before nine o'clock."

It looked to me then just as though the villain knew the contents of
the package.

"If Mr. Whippleton comes in again, Robert, don't lose sight of him for
an instant. Follow him wherever he goes, if it is to the other side of
the continent."

"Why--"

"Do as I tell you. I suppose Mr. Collingsby has the officers on his
track by this time."

"You don't mean so!"

"Certainly I do; he has swindled the firm out of seventy or eighty
thousand dollars; fifty, at least, after taking out his capital and
profits. If Mr. Collingsby or Mr. Faxon comes in, tell him I have gone
over to see where the boat is."

I rushed out of the counting-room almost frantic with excitement, for I
confess that the loss of the package which had been specially committed
to my care affected me much more deeply than the deficit of the junior
partner. I hurried to the mouth of the river, and arrived there out of
breath. The Florina was not at her moorings, and as I looked out upon
the lake, I discovered her, at least three miles distant, running
towards the Michigan shore. I had no doubt that the valuable package,
and from