l, anyhow, when I got to
the bank the money was gone! It wasn't in my pocket; it wasn't anywhere
about me."
He stopped an instant.
"You can imagine how I felt. My father had cautioned me not to lose that
money on my life. I hadn't the nerve to tell him. Somehow I thought that
if I could just smooth the matter over for a little while the envelope
with the money in it would turn up. I was certain I couldn't have lost
it."
Again he paused.
"At first I thought I'll sell a Liberty bond I had and put my hundred in
the bank to dad's credit. Then I happened to think that my father had
the bond locked up in his safe-deposit box and that I couldn't get at it
without telling him. I didn't know what to do. I simply hadn't the
courage to go home and tell the truth. You wouldn't like to face your
father and tell him you'd lost a cool hundred of his cash for him.
Besides, I was sure it wasn't lost. I felt morally certain I had
somehow misplaced that envelope and that it would come to light. I
hunted all day, though, through my pockets and everywhere I could think
of and it didn't appear. I began to get scared. What was I going to do?
When the bank statement came in my father would see right off that the
money had not been deposited. And anyway, even if he didn't, it was only
square to tell him what I'd done. I was casting round for a way out when
that noon Mel called me and asked me if I'd do an errand for him on the
way home. He wanted me to stop at the bank as I passed and put in some
_March Hare_ money. It was a hundred dollars and it seemed to drop right
out of the sky into my hands. I decided to deposit it to my father's
credit and trust to finding the sum I'd lost to square up the school
accounts."
A light of understanding began to break in on Paul.
He waited.
"I guess you know what's coming," Donald murmured.
"No, I don't."
"Well, somebody does," declared the boy wretchedly. "That's what's got
me fussed. I chance to know how the _March Hare_ books stood. Somebody's
made good that money I took--made it good without saying a word about
it."
Donald, studying his friend's face, saw a gleam of satisfaction pass
over it.
"Kip!" he whispered, "was it you? Did you put the money back when you
found it gone from the treasury?"
"Mel and I divided it. We found the accounts short and of course we had
to do something. We thought we'd made a mistake in the books," explained
Paul. "So we turned in the sum and even
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