“My arrest!” stammered Roy, “why you must be mad.  What on earth do I know about it?”

“Nothin’, only you happened to hev’ a marked bill in your pocket t’other day,” shot out the sheriff, triumphantly.  “Fanning Harding step forward.  What do you know about this?”

“Only this, that Miss Regina Mortlake after the automobile accident found a wallet belonging to Roy Prescott in the roadway.  She opened it and discovered that it contained a marked twenty-dollar bill answering the description of one of the bills stolen from the Galloway farm house.  She made me a witness of the find, and in line with my duty as a citizen, I thought it best to expose the thief, and——.”

Fanning stopped and turned pale as a boyish figure sprang toward him with doubled fists.  He shrank back, turning a sickly yellow.

“You contemptible sneak!” shouted Jimsy, whose fists it had been that threatened Fanning.

“Sheriff, I claim protection,” said the cowardly youth, shrinking behind the official.

“Now, no fisticuffs here,” warned the sheriff, “my only duty now is to preserve order and arrest Roy Prescott on a charge of grand larceny.”

Peggy turned white and sick.  The veranda floor seemed to heave up and down like sea waves under her feet.  But in the next few seconds she regained control of herself.

“Why such a charge is absurd,” she declared vehemently, “this is simply spite on the part of our rivals in the aeroplane business.”

“Don’t know nuthin’ about that,” reiterated the sheriff, stolidly, “the warrant has bin sworn out an’ it’s my duty ter execute it.  Constable, arrest that boy.  Ef his foot is too bad hurt to walk, git a rig an’ drive him in ter town.”

Hardscrabble, flushed and swollen with importance, stepped forward.  He was about to place his hand on Roy’s shoulder, but the boy checked him.

“No need for that.  Peggy, if you’ll have them get out the auto, we’ll drive into town at once.”

Mortlake stepped forward.

“Prescott,” he said, “I hope you don’t hold this against me.  I——.”

“I don’t wish to speak to you, sir,” shot out Roy, for the first time betraying indignation, “let that be your answer.”

“But I—­really, I’m sorry to—­Bancroft you’ll listen——­”

But Jimsy turned his back on the flushed, overfed man whose eyes could not look him in the face.

“In the future please do us the honor not to speak to us,” he said, his voice vibrant with anger.

“Why, if I may ask?”

Jimsy flashed round.

“Because, if you don’t pay attention to my request I’m afraid I shall be unable to curb my desire to land both my fists in your eyes.”

Mortlake drew back and turned away among his workmen.  He did not speak again.

Before long the auto came round.  In the meantime Peggy had taken upon herself the task of consoling Miss Prescott.  Poor Aunt Sallie, she took the news very hardly.  It was all Peggy could do to keep her from rushing out upon the porch and denouncing the entire assemblage.