am as certain of it as I am of my own existence," replied Pearl
warmly. "I have found out something about the boy since I was here. He
has the reputation of being wild, and no one sent him over here to buy a
boat. And a fellow like him don't have forty or fifty dollars to invest
in boats."

"All that may be; but you can be careful just as well as not," added the
landlord.

"He is nothing but a young cub, and has no friends, so that nothing will
come of it if he shouldn't happen to be the thief."

"If he has no one to defend him, so much the more reason why he should
be fairly dealt with," replied the hotel-keeper,--a sentiment with
which Pearl Hawlinshed had no sympathy. "I have seen Moody since you
went out, and he says a man was looking into the keyhole of the room
next to his about ten o'clock last evening. That was your father's room.
Have you any idea who that man was, Hawlinshed?"

"I haven't the least idea in the world," answered Pearl; and possibly
the landlord did not notice his confusion when he replied, "Very likely
it was this same boy."

"It wasn't a boy, but a man: I asked Moody particularly about this
matter."

"I don't know any thing about the matter at all," protested Pearl. "If
the man that lost the money saw any thing of this kind, why didn't he
tell of it before?"

"I asked him this question, and he says he did not think of it before.
The fact of it is, that Moody had been drinking, though he sticks to it
that he wasn't drunk. He went into his room at about ten o'clock, and
put the money into his trunk, for he was afraid he might lose it. He saw
the man looking in at the keyhole of your father's room when he went
into his own to put the money in a safe place. He heard voices in the
next room when he opened his trunk. The boy was with your father at that
time very likely."

"If the man had been drinking, it is not probable that he knows much
about the boy or the man," added Pearl.

"He had not got very tipsy, or he would not have thought to look out for
his money. But bring the boy up, if you can get him without violence or
outrage. If he explains where he got the money to buy the boat, that is
the end of the matter so far as he is concerned. In my opinion the man
who was looking in at the keyhole of your father's room is more likely
to be the thief than the boy."

"Where did the boy get forty-two dollars to pay for the boat, then?"
demanded Pearl.

"I give it up," laughed the landlord.