“Pardon me, just a minute, Captain Hunniwell.  Where did he get the four hundred to give you, do you think?  He hasn’t cashed any large checks at the bank within the last day or two, and he would scarcely have so much on hand in his shop.”

“Not as much as that—­no.  Although I’ve known the absent-minded, careless critter to have over two hundred knockin’ around among his tools and chips and glue pots.  Probably he had some to start with, and he got the rest by gettin’ folks around town and over to Harniss to cash his checks.  Anthony Hammond over there asked me a little while ago, when I met him down to the wharf, if I thought Shavin’s Winslow was good for a hundred and twenty-five.  Said Jed had sent over by the telephone man’s auto and asked him to cash a check for that much.  Hammond said he thought ’twas queer he hadn’t cashed it at our bank; that’s why he asked me about it.”

“Humph!  But why should he give his own money away in that fashion?  And confess to stealing and all that stuff?  I never heard of such a thing.”

“Neither did anybody else.  I’ve known Jed all my life and I never can tell what loony thing he’s liable to do next.  But this beats all of ’em, I will give in.”

“You don’t suppose—­you don’t suppose he is doing it to help you, because you are his friend?  Because he is afraid the bank—­or you—­ may get into trouble because of—­well, because of having been so careless?”

Captain Sam laughed once more.  “No, no,” he said.  “Gracious king, I hope my reputation’s good enough to stand the losin’ of four hundred dollars.  And Jed knows perfectly well I could put it back myself, if ‘twas necessary, without runnin’ me into the poorhouse.  No, ‘tain’t for me he’s doin’ it.  I ain’t the reason.”

“And you’re quite sure his story is all untrue.  You don’t imagine that he did find the money, your money, and then, for some reason or other, change it with smaller bills, and—­”

“Sshh, sshh, Charlie, don’t waste your breath.  I told you I knew he hadn’t found the four hundred dollars I lost, didn’t I?  Well, I do know it and for the very best of reasons; in fact, my stoppin’ into his shop just now was to tell him what I’d heard.  You see, Charlie, old Sylvester Sage has got back from Boston and opened up his house again.  And he telephoned me at two o’clock to say that the four hundred dollar packet was layin’ on his sittin’-room table just where I left it when he and I parted company four days or so ago.  That’s how I know Jed didn’t find it.”

From the shadowy corner where Ruth Armstrong sat came a little gasp and an exclamation.  Charles whistled.

“Well, by George!” he exclaimed.  “That certainly puts a crimp in Jed’s confession.”

“Sartin sure it does.  When Sylvester and I parted we was both pretty hot under the collar, havin’ called each other’s politics about every mean name we could think of.  I grabbed up my gloves, and what I thought was my money from the table and slammed out of the house.  Seems all I grabbed was the two five hundred packages; the four hundred one was shoved under some papers and magazines and there it stayed till Sylvester got back from his Boston cruise.