"But somebody must have seen it in your possession, and come down with you and stolen it."

"Huh! You think so?"

"How else can you explain it?" demanded the voluble Agnes, the pent up waters of her imagination overflowing now. "Of course it was very dangerous indeed for you to be carrying all that wealth around with you.

Why, Neale! you might have been killed for it.

"The-the book was put in that old closet in the dining room chimney. And Aunt Sarah locked the door, not knowing there was anything of importance in the closet but her peppermints. And then we couldn't unlock it because the lock was fouled.

"And so, we don't know when the money was taken. But we broke the lock of the closet this afternoon and there it was-the book, I mean-empty!"

Neale was leading her toward the house. "Great Peter's pipe!" he gasped.

"You can talk nineteen to the dozen and no mistake, Aggie. Hush, will you, till we get inside?"

Agnes was rather offended at this. She went up the porch steps ahead and opened the door into the hall. Ruth was just going into the sitting room.

"Oh, Ruthie! are you alone?" whispered Agnes.

"Goodness! how you startled me," said the older sister. "There's n.o.body in the sitting room. What do you want? Oh!"

"It's Neale," said Agnes, dragging the boy in. "And you've got to tell him how sorry you are for what you said!"

"Well-I like that!" exclaimed Ruth.

"You know you're sorry," pleaded the peacemaker. "Say so!"

"Well, I am! Come in, Neale O'Neil. Between us, you and I have made an awful mess of this thing. Mrs. Eland and Miss Pepperill have lost all their fortune."

"How's that?" asked the boy, easily.

"Didn't Agnes tell you that the money and bonds have been stolen?"

"Why-she said so," admitted Neale.

"Well!" exclaimed Ruth.

"Well!" exclaimed Agnes.

"I guess you are worried about not much of anything," said Neale O'Neil, lightly.

"What do you mean, you silly boy?" demanded Ruth, with rising asperity.

"I tell you that money must have all been good money, whether the bonds were valuable or not."

It was then Neale's turn to say, "Well?"

"Neale O'Neil!" shouted Agnes, shaking him. "What are you trying to do-torment us to death? What do you know about this?"

"Why, I told you the old book was in my bag on the porch when I left here Sat.u.r.day night," drawled the boy. "But do you suppose I would have flung it down there so carelessly if the money and bonds had been in it?"

CHAPTER XXV

AGNES IS PERFECTLY HAPPY

"Oh, Neale! Oh, Ruth! I'm going to faint!" murmured Agnes Kenway, and she sank into a chair and began to "stiffen out" in approved fainting fashion.

But when she saw the boy pick up a vase, grab the flowers out of it with ruthless hand, and start to douse her with the water it was supposed to contain, the Corner House girl "came to" very promptly.

"Don't do that!" she cried. "You'll spoil those roses. And if there was water in that vase it would ruin my dress. Goosey! Those are artificial flowers, anyway. That's all a boy knows!"

"Neale seems to know a great deal that we do not," Ruth said faintly, really more overcome than Agnes was by the bomb Neale had flung.

"Say! haven't you heard from Mr. Howbridge?" demanded the youth.

"Mr. Howbridge?" murmured Ruth. "No."

"Then he'll be home himself to-morrow, and thought it wasn't worth while to write."

"What _do_ you mean, Neale O'Neil?" demanded Agnes.

"Did _you_ see Mr. Howbridge?" asked Ruth.

"Sure!"

"But I thought you went to see your uncle, Mr. Sorber," said the oldest Corner House girl.

"So I did. Poor Uncle Bill! He was pretty well done up. But he's better now, as I told you. But that's why I took the old book with me."

"_What_ is _why_?" demanded Agnes.

"Such 'langwitch'!" exclaimed Neale, with laughter. "I tell you I carried that alb.u.m away with me because I wanted to show the stuff in it to Mr. Howbridge. I remembered he was up there in Tiverton, too."

"Oh, dear me! I had forgotten it!" cried Ruth.

"I remembered, but I forgot to tell you," said Agnes.

"I didn't think the stuff was any good. But I thought Mr. Howbridge ought to see it and judge for himself. So I took it to him. He was busy when I first called and I left the book with him. That was at his brother's house."

"Oh, Neale!" groaned Ruth. "Why didn't you write us about it?"

"Didn't think of it. I give you my word I did not believe that the bonds were worth anything; and I was confident the money was phony."

"Oh, dear!" said Agnes. "And it's all safe? Mr. Howbridge has all that great lot of money?"

"Yes. I saw him Sat.u.r.day before I came down to Milton. He pretty nearly took me off my feet when he said that it was all good stuff, with lots of dividend money coming to the owner of the bonds, too. And he wanted to know all the particulars of your finding the alb.u.m. Bless you! he doesn't know what to think about it. He is only sure that your Uncle Peter never owned the bonds or the cash."