apers from the vault. As I said it happened that I knew him, and he
immediately bound me to secrecy. But after I had a chance to talk with
him this noon he drew around to _our_ opinion, to the effect that the
securities which Mr. Graylock claims were stolen from his packet never
went into the safe at all!"

Dick was vastly interested in all this news.

He had never seen a real live detective in his whole life, and the way
in which this smooth gentleman seemed to be working in his capacity as a
regular bank examiner was simply wonderful, in his opinion.

"If all this is so I don't wonder that you told him what we suspected.
And you say, Mr. Winslow that he took to the idea at once?" he asked,
breathlessly.

"Like a hungry dog does to a bone. Said he was up a tree, for it didn't
seem as if the thief could be any one in the bank, for not a trace had
been left behind. He has met Mr. Graylock--the president attended to
that, and I think that his opinion of the gentleman agrees with our own,
and that he would not put it past one of his showing, under the peculiar
conditions existing, to carry out such a clever little scheme to feather
his own nest at the expense of his creditors. More than that Mr. Cheever
says it is rather a chestnut, and has been worked often."

"But he did not happen to think of it?" interjected Dick.

"Oh! he says he would have come around to that idea after he had made
positive that none of us poor beggars in the bank had purloined Mr.
Graylock's bundle; but all the same he was mighty greedy to hear every
detail of what happened that day. He said he would have a talk with you
to-morrow, when he found a chance, seeing that I was bound to tell you
about his dual character. It's a dead secret, remember, Richard."

"Certainly, sir; I shall not speak of it to any one, but my mother."

The teller looked doubtful at first, and then smiled.

"I guess it will be all right to take _her_ into your confidence, since
she seems to be a woman in ten thousand who can keep a secret; but be
sure and impress this fact on her, Richard. You've had a great day of
it, my boy, a wonderful day. Really I envy you the pleasure of telling
how you received those honorable burns; and I'd give something to have a
pretty girl tie up my hand in her own dainty kerchief."

"Now you're joshing me again, Mr. Winslow. Of course she and her mother
felt as if they couldn't do enough for me; but then you know, that's the
way with the