e doesn't matter
anyway."

"Oh, POOR Walter!" The mother cried. "Oh, the POOR boy! Poor, poor
Walter! Poor, poor, poor, POOR----"

"Hush, dear, hush!" Alice tried to soothe her, but the lament could
not be abated, and from the other side of the room a repetition in
a different spirit was as continuous. Adams paced furiously there,
pounding his fist into his left palm as he strode. "The dang boy!" he
said. "Dang little fool! Dang idiot! Dang fool! Whyn't he TELL me, the
dang little fool?"

"He DID!" Mrs. Adams sobbed. "He DID tell you, and you wouldn't GIVE it
to him."

"He DID, did he?" Adams shouted at her. "What he begged me for was money
to run away with! He never dreamed of putting back what he took. What
the dangnation you talking about--accusing me!"

"He NEEDED it," she said. "He needed it to run away with! How could he
expect to LIVE, after he got away, if he didn't have a little money? Oh,
poor, poor, POOR Walter! Poor, poor, poor----"

She went back to this repetition; and Adams went back to his own, then
paused, seeing his old friend standing in the hallway outside the open
door.

"Ah--I'll just be goin', I guess, Virgil," Lohr said. "I don't see as
there's any use my tryin' to say any more. I'll do anything you want me
to, you understand."

"Wait a minute," Adams said, and, groaning, came and went down the
stairs with him. "You say you didn't see the old man at all?"

"No, I don't know a thing about what he's going to do," Lohr said, as
they reached the lower floor. "Not a thing. But look here, Virgil,
I don't see as this calls for you and your wife to take on so hard
about--anyhow not as hard as the way you've started."

"No," Adams gulped. "It always seems that way to the other party that's
only looking on!"

"Oh, well, I know that, of course," old Charley returned, soothingly.
"But look here, Virgil: they may not catch the boy; they didn't even
seem to be sure what train he made, and if they do get him, why, the ole
man might decide not to prosecute if----"

"HIM?" Adams cried, interrupting. "Him not prosecute? Why, that's what
he's been waiting for, all along! He thinks my boy and me both cheated
him! Why, he was just letting Walter walk into a trap! Didn't you say
they'd been suspecting him for some time back? Didn't you say they'd
been watching him and were just about fixing to arrest him?"

"Yes, I know," said Lohr; "but you can't tell, especially if you raise
the money and pay it ba