, was it? and suspicion had already
pointed its finger in the direction of the bank boy, simply because he
had held the buff envelope in his hands a brief time!

Somehow, now that the worst was known, Dick did not feel anything like a
tremor pass through his frame.

Strong in the consciousness of his own innocence he could not see where
he had been at all to blame; they could certainly not accuse him of a
misdemeanor on the strength of mere suspicion in the mind of Mr.
Graylock, who had shown so plainly the strange and unreasonable dislike
he bore Dick.

"I am sorry to hear that, sir; but I assure you that I know absolutely
nothing about the matter. I placed the packet on the shelf; someone put
it away a short time later, and I have not touched it since. That is all
I can say, Mr. Goodwyn," he went on, with an expression on his young
face that might either mean sincerity or brazen boldness, according to
the way one chose to look at it.

"But no one saw you come out of the safe that day. You may have been
there a full minute; that would be long enough to open the envelope,
extract part of the contents and put the rest away--that is, if you were
so minded," said Mr. Graylock, vindictively.

Dick grew very white, and a burning answer trembled on his tongue at
this direct accusation, but he wisely held himself in restraint,
remembering that under the circumstances the distracted merchant could
hardly be blamed for what he was saying.

"Stop and look at the matter a minute, sir. It hardly seems reasonable
that a green boy at the business should know all about negotiable
securities, and take only such out of the envelope, leaving all others.
In what way could I attempt to dispose of such things, since I have
never been out of Riverview in all my life? If these papers have been
stolen and are being offered for sale somewhere, it looks to me as
though some pretty clever man must have done the stealing, instead of a
bank boy."

The cashier looked interested at what he said.

"At least the boy talks sense, Graylock. If there is a leak in this bank
we are bound to discover it in short order. You need not worry about it,
sir, since you are protected by our assurance that we will do all in our
power to recover your securities; and if it can be proven conclusively
that any one in our employ took them the bank is bound to remunerate
you, even though its resources be badly crippled in so doing. Mr. Gibbs
is unfortunately away