"Now, I must get ready, for the next train leaves for the city in half an hour."

"I'll go along with you to the depot," said Philip.

"No, you'd better not. After the loss is discovered, it might excite some remark, and possibly suspicion, if it were remembered."

"Then I'll be going. I've got an errand over at the store. Shall I see you to-night?"

"You'd better not come around till to-morrow morning. It may help avert suspicion."

"Just as you say."

"A pretty good haul!" said Congreve to himself. "I didn't think the little fool would have s.p.u.n.k enough to do it, but he has. I may pay him that fifty dollars, and then again I may not. I don't think I shall care to come back again to this dull hole to-night. I shall have to leave my trunk, but it isn't worth the sum I owe the landlord, and he is welcome to it. With the price of these bonds I can start anew cheaper."

Philip left his friend, without the least suspicion that he intended to play him false. He felt very comfortable. He had got the bonds out of his possession, so that there was no danger of their being found on him, and he was to receive, the next morning, fifty dollars, a larger sum than he had ever possessed at one time in his life. He made up his mind that he would put it away in his trunk, and use it from time to time as he had occasion for it.

He went to the grocery store, and left his mother's order. Then he took an aimless walk, for Congreve was away, and there was no one else he cared to be with.

So he turned to go home. He rather dreaded to enter the house, lest his father might have discovered his loss. In the yard he saw Tom Calder.

Tom, remembering what he had seen the evening before, looked at Philip with a significant grin, but said nothing.

"What are you grinning at?" demanded Philip,

"Nothing. I feel gay and festive, that is all," responded the stable boy.

"Where's my father?"

"He went out to ride in the buggy."

Philip felt relieved. Evidently the loss had not been discovered yet. He was glad to have it put off.

"Is there any news?" asked Tom, with another grin.

"News? Why should there be any?"

"I don't know. I thought you might know of some."

"You talk like a fool," said Philip, angrily, and went into the house.

"There'll be some news soon, I reckon," said Tom to himself, with a grin. "I won't say nothing till the time comes. Wonder if Philip'll think I am talking like a fool then?"

CHAPTER x.x.xV

THROWING SUSPICION ON HARRY

During the day Colonel Ross had no occasion to look into his trunk of securities. Clearly, he had no suspicion that he had met with a loss.

It might strike the reader as curious that Philip began to be impatient to have his father make the discovery. An impending blow always leads to a state of suspense which is by no means agreeable. When the blow falls, a certain relief is felt. So Philip knew that the discovery would be made sooner or later, and he wanted to have the matter settled, and clear himself at once from suspicion by diverting it to Harry Gilbert.

In the hope that his father would find out his loss, he lingered round the house through the afternoon, filling up the time as well as he could. Usually, he would have pa.s.sed at least a part of the time with James Congreve, but the latter had gone to the city.

"Don't you feel well, Philip?" asked his mother.

"Certainly! What makes you ask?"

"You don't generally stay at home all the afternoon."

"Oh, well, there isn't anything going on in the village."

"Where is that friend of yours who is staying at the hotel?"

"He went away this morning to the city."

"Isn't he coming back?"

"Oh, yes, I suppose so."

"I suppose you feel lonely without him?"

"Yes, mother."

"Have you seen anything of Uncle Obed lately?" asked Mrs. Ross, making a wry face as she p.r.o.nounced the word admitting the relationship.

"Yes; I saw him walking with the Gilbert boy the other evening."

"Did you speak to him?"

"No; I just nodded. I don't care about getting intimate with him. I wish he'd leave town."

"As likely as not, he'll use up all his money, and then come on your father for help."

"I hope father won't give him anything, then," said Philip.

"I am willing that he should give him enough to get him back to Illinois. He ought never to have left there. If he thinks we are going to pay his board here, all I can say is that he is very much mistaken,"

said Mrs. Ross, pressing her thin lips together with emphasis.

"That's the talk, ma! I am glad you don't mean to be imposed upon. I suppose old Wilkins thinks you are soft, and won't see him suffer. You'd better keep a stiff upper lip."

"He will know me better after a while," said Mrs. Ross.

The afternoon wore away, and supper came. Philip partook as usual, and waited afterward in the confident expectation that his father would open the small trunk. He was not mistaken.

Upon retiring to his special apartment, Colonel Ross took up the trunk, and, producing the key, opened it.

It so happened that he was after some papers, and did not immediately take up the envelope containing the government bonds. Philip was rather afraid he wouldn't, and ventured to remind him of them by a question.

"How many government bonds have you in that envelope, pa?" he asked.