ton."

"This spirit of trust does you credit, Frank, and I very much hope that
you may be right. But as soon as a negro like Hamilton learns the value
of money and begins to earn it, at the same time he begins to covet some
easy and rapid way of securing it. The old negro knew nothing of the
value of money. When he stole, he stole hams and bacon and chickens.
These were his immediate necessities and the things he valued. The
present laughs at this tendency without knowing the cause. The present
negro resents the laugh, and he has learned to value other things than
those which satisfy his belly."

Frank looked bored.

"But pardon me for boring you. I know you want to go to bed. Go and
leave everything to me."

The young man reluctantly withdrew, and Maurice went to the telephone
and rung up the police station.

As Maurice had said, he was a plain, hard-headed business man, and it
took very few words for him to put the Chief of Police in possession of
the principal facts of the case. A detective was detailed to take
charge of the case, and was started immediately, so that he might be
upon the ground as soon after the commission of the crime as possible.

When he came he insisted that if he was to do anything he must question
the robbed man and search his room at once. Oakley protested, but the
detective was adamant. Even now the presence in the room of a man
uninitiated into the mysteries of criminal methods might be destroying
the last vestige of a really important clue. The master of the house had
no alternative save to yield. Together they went to the artist's room. A
light shone out through the crack under the door.

"I am sorry to disturb you again, Frank, but may we come in?"

"Who is with you?"

"The detective."

"I did not know he was to come to-night."

"The chief thought it better."

"All right in a moment."

There was a sound of moving around, and in a short time the young
fellow, partly undressed, opened the door.

To the detective's questions he answered in substance what he had told
before. He also brought out the cabinet. It was a strong oak box,
uncarven, but bound at the edges with brass. The key was still in the
lock, where Frank had left it on discovering his loss. They raised the
lid. The cabinet contained two compartments, one for letters and a
smaller one for jewels and trinkets.

"When you opened this cabinet, your money was gone?"

"Yes."

"Were any of your papers touched?"