“And I can’t,” said Bob.  “I will be more than half an hour late in getting back to the store, and I know Mr. Dardus will be very angry.  I most wish I hadn’t said I’d wait.  It just shows that Mr. Dardus is right when he says there is no pleasure in having money that isn’t earned honestly, and getting a dollar for just holding this money isn’t really honest work.”

“Well, if you think you ought to be delivering your groceries, why not give the envelope to me?  I’ll stay here and wait, though I must say I am getting tired.”

“Oh, no,” said Bob.  “I gave my word that I would stay, and I will.”

The countryman’s suggestion that he be intrusted with the money aroused Bob’s suspicion, for he remembered that the others had placed five hundred dollars in the envelope, and he thought it was a scheme on the part of Simpkins to get possession of this money.  So that after this interchange of words, both lapsed into silence.

As the quarter hour lengthened into a half, then to three-quarters, and finally to an hour, without the re-appearance of the two well-dressed New Yorkers, Bob’s dread of his guardian’s anger outweighed his desire to earn the dollar, and he finally exclaimed: 

“I can’t wait any longer; honest I can’t.”  And then, chancing to catch sight of a policeman standing on the corner about a hundred feet away, a way out of the difficulty suggested itself, and he said to the countryman: 

“I tell you how we can fix it.  We will go over to that policeman and explain the matter to him, and I’ll ask him to hold the envelope until those men come back.”

And without giving Simpkins time to protest, Bob picked up his basket, and led the way to where the guardian of the law was standing, indolently surveying the crowd.

Casting a contemptuous glance at the two ludicrous figures that approached him, the policeman first listened to the excited explanation of the boy indifferently, then with incredulity, and finally with amusement.

“I have heard of such easy marks, but I never expected to see them in flesh and blood,” exclaimed the officer, when Bob stopped speaking.  “So you think you are holding some money in that envelope, do you, kid?  Well, I’ll bet a year’s pay that there is nothing in it but old paper.”

And while the countryman and the boy gazed at him in speechless dismay, the policeman took the envelope from Bob’s hand, opened it, and drew forth to their startled gaze a roll of tissue-paper.

“I told you so,” grunted the policeman, but further comment was interrupted by the actions of Simpkins.

No sooner had he discovered that he had been swindled than he shouted at the top of his lungs: 

“I’ve been robbed!  I’ve been robbed!  They’ve stolen seven hundred and fifty dollars from me!”

The loud, excited words and the gesticulations of the grotesquely-garbed man quickly drew the attention of the passersby, and in a trice the victims of the swindlers and the policeman were the center of a curious throng of people.