ad been deposited in the cavity; that an hour
before the fire, the miser had assured himself the gold was safe; that,
after the fire, the board had been found in its place as before, but
the gold was gone. A dozen of the neighbors, at least, had been into
the room, and Dock Vincent and Mat Mogmore had been the last to leave.
Mr. Fairfield was sure that neither Dock nor Mat knew he had any money
in the house. There was no good reason for supposing they, any more
than any other of the neighbors, had taken the gold.

After a long and careful examination of the premises, and a patient
inquiry into all the circumstances, nothing could be brought forward to
implicate any person in the robbery. Levi was not willing to believe
yet that the gold had been stolen. He went down cellar, and surveyed
the timbers under the hole, hoping that the bags had dropped through;
but he could not find them. He could not determine whether or not there
was any connection between the fire and the robbery; but Mr. Fairfield
insisted that some one--he did not say Levi now--intended to burn the
house, so as to cover up the crime, or at least afford an opportunity
to commit the theft.

"How could any one set the fire in the roof?" asked Levi.

"They might have gone up there, as you did," replied the old man,
rather malignantly.

"Let us go up and see how the fire took," added Levi. "Aunt Susan had a
big fire in the oven."

"It couldn't ketch afire up there if she did," replied uncle Nathan, as
he followed his nephew up the ladder.

Some of the boards and shingles had been burned through, but the
rafters were only charred. Levi went up to the chimney and examined the
woodwork near it. The house was a very old one, and had been built upon
until its present proportions had been reached. The chimney, where the
fire had taken, was in the most ancient part, and the bricks were laid
in clay. Levi found that three or four of them, on one of the inside
corners, had dropped out. This was the defect which the owner had
repaired.

"There is a great hole in the chimney," said Levi.

"I know there is; but I stopped that up a month ago. I hadn't no mortar
nor nothin', and I just nailed a board over the hole."

"That's the way the fire took," added Levi, wondering at the
carelessness of his uncle.

"I didn't suppose there was any heat up here, twenty foot from the
fire," replied the old man, sheepishly.

"Aunt Susan had a rousing fire in the oven. The w