“Sure of that?”

“Course I’m sure of it.  I can see it just as plain as day, now I come to think of it.  ’Twas all together, in a heap like.”

“Um-hm.  The band that was round it had come off, then?”

“Band?  What band?”

“Why, the paper band with ‘$400’ on it.  That had come off when it fell out of my pocket, I presume likely.”

“Yes. . . .  Yes, I guess likely it did.  Must have. . . .  Er—­ Sam, let me show you that gull vane.  I got it so now that—­”

“Hold on a minute.  I’m mighty interested about your findin’ this money.  It’s so—­so sort of unexpected, as you might say.  If that band came off it must have broke when the money tumbled down behind the boards.  Let’s see if it did.”

He rose and moved toward the pile of boards.  Jed also rose.

“What are you goin’ to look for?” he asked, anxiously.

“Why, the paper band with the ‘$400’ on it.  I’d like to see if it broke. . . .  Humph!” he added, peering down into the dark crevice between the boards and the wall of the shop.  “Can’t see anything of it, can you?”

Jed, peering solemnly down, shook his head.  “No,” he said.  “I can’t see anything of it.”

“But it may be there, for all that.”  He reached down.  “Humph!” he exclaimed.  “I can’t touch bottom.  Jed, you’ve got a longer arm than I have; let’s see if you can.”

Jed, sprawled upon the heap of lumber, stretched his arm as far as it would go.  “Hum,” he drawled, “I can’t quite make it, Sam. . . .  There’s a place where she narrows way down here and I can’t get my fingers through it.”

“Is that so?  Then we’d better give up lookin’ for the band, I cal’late.  Didn’t amount to anything, anyhow.  Tell me more about what you did when you found the money.  You must have been surprised.”

“Eh? . . .  Land sakes, I was.  I don’t know’s I ever was so surprised in my life.  Thinks I, ‘Here’s Sam’s money that’s missin’ from the bank.’  Yes, sir, and ’twas, too.”

“Well, I’m much obliged to you, Jed, I surely am.  And when you found it—­ Let’s see, you found it this mornin’, of course?”

“Eh?  Why—­why, how—­what makes you think I found it this mornin’?”

“Oh, because you must have.  ’Cause if you’d found it yesterday or the day before you’d have told me right off.”

“Yes—­oh, yes, that’s so.  Yes, I found it this mornin’.”

“Hadn’t you thought to hunt for it afore?”

“Eh? . . .  Land sakes, yes . . . yes, I’d hunted lots of times, but I hadn’t found it.”

“Hadn’t thought to look in that place, eh?”

“That’s it. . . .  Say, Sam, what—­”

“It’s lucky you hadn’t moved those boards.  If you’d shifted them any since I threw my coat on ’em you might not have found it for a month, not till you used up the whole pile.  Lucky you looked afore you shifted the lumber.”