“Hush, Jed!  He knows you didn’t take it.  He knew it all the time you were telling him you did.  In fact he came into your shop this afternoon to tell you that the Sage man over at Wapatomac had found the four hundred dollars on the table in his sitting-room just where the captain left it.  Sage had just ’phoned him that very thing.  He would have told you that, but you didn’t give him the chance.  Jed, I—­”

But Jed interrupted.  His expression as he listened had been changing like the sky on a windy day in April.

“Here, here!” he cried wildly.  “What—­what kind of talk’s that?  Do—­do you mean to tell me that Sam Hunniwell never lost that money at all?  That all he did was leave it over at Wapatomac?”

“Yes, that’s just what I mean.”

“Then—­then all the time when I was—­was givin’ him the—­the other money and tellin’ him how I found it and—­and all—­he knew—­”

“Certainly he knew.  I’ve just told you that he knew.”

Jed sat heavily down in the chair once more.  He passed his hand slowly across his chin.

“He knew!” he repeated.  “He knew! . . .”  Then, with a sudden gasp as the full significance of the thought came to him, he cried:  “Why, if—­if the money wasn’t ever lost you couldn’t—­you—­”

Charles shook his head:  “No, Jed,” he said, “I couldn’t have taken it.  And I didn’t take it.”

Jed gasped again.  He stretched out a hand imploringly.  “Oh, Lord,” he exclaimed, “I never meant to say that.  I—­I—­”

“It’s all right, Jed.  I don’t blame you for thinking I might have taken it.  Knowing what you did about—­well, about my past record, it is not very astonishing that you should think almost anything.”

Jed’s agonized contrition was acute.

“Don’t talk so, Charlie!” he pleaded.  “Don’t!  I—­I’d ought to be ashamed of myself.  I am—­mercy knows I am!  But . . .  Eh?  Why, how did you know I knew about—­that?”

“Ruth told me just now.  After Captain Hunniwell had gone, she told me the whole thing.  About how Babbie let the cat out of the bag and how she told you for fear you might suspect something even worse than the truth; although,” he added, “that was quite bad enough.  Yes, she told me everything.  You’ve been a brick all through, Jed.  And now—­”

“Wait, Charlie, wait.  I—­I don’t know what to say to you.  I don’t know what you must think of me for ever—­ever once suspectin’ you.  If you hadn’t said to me only such a little spell ago that you needed money so bad and would do most anything to get five hundred dollars—­if you hadn’t said that, I don’t think the notion would ever have crossed my mind.”