“Then I got mixed in with Lem Gildy.  He saw me with a lot of cash, and he suspected something.  The man is sharp, and one day he saw the numbers of one of the bank notes I had.  He looked up the numbers which Ed gave the police, and it corresponded.  Then he jumped to the conclusion that I had stolen the ten thousand dollars in cash, and the bonds.  Nothing I could say about it being a joke could convince him.  He began to bleed me for hush money, and I had to give it to him.  Then I thought of a plan for getting him out of the way.  I put him up to start Jack’s car off, thinking he might be arrested for malicious mischief and put in jail, but I never dreamed you would be hurt, Jack.  Honest, I didn’t.”

Jack did not answer.

“Well, that plan didn’t work,” went on Sid, “and Lem kept getting worse.  Then I didn’t know what Mary Downs might be up to, going away as she did.  I believe she thought I really stole the money.”

“She did,” put in Cora.  “She told me so; but her going away had nothing to do with it.  A relative was taken suddenly ill, and she had to leave.  She wrote me something about the robbery—­excuse me, I’ll not call it a robbery now—­but Mary thought it was, and she imagined both Sid and Ida were guilty.”

“I can’t blame her much,” murmured Ida unhappily.

“I have treated you very meanly, Ida,” confessed Sid.  “I made you keep my secret, and Lem found out—­at least, he thought he did—­that you were in with me.”

“That’s why he followed me and demanded money of me,” spoke Ida.  “I decided then that it must all come out, though I also decided that I would never again have anything to do with you, Sid Wilcox.”

“Not even after—­” began the youth: 

“No.  Your—­your ring is—­here,” and she, pointed to the safe.

Sid started.

“I wondered why you didn’t wear it,” he said:  “Yes,” he went on, “I have been mean to Ida, though I—­I did ask her to take the ring—­to—­to make up for it.”

It was clear that he did care for the girl, as much as it was possible for a person of his selfish nature to care for any one.

“I—­I spent some of the money for the ring for Ida,” he went on.

“Yes, and for that reason, as much as for any other—­because I knew you were only a shade removed from a thief—­I threw it away!” burst out Ida.

“When?” asked Sid, much astonished.

“The same night when, masked as a nun, I slipped back the bonds into Ed’s pocket—­as you asked me to.”

“So that’s how they got there!” exclaimed Ed.

“Then, when Ida came and told me a little while ago about Lem,” went on Sid after a pause, “I knew the game was up.  He was getting desperate, and he’s liable to send word to the police at any moment, accusing me, and I don’t want to be arrested.”

He seemed very anxious.

“Now here is your ten thousand dollars back,” he said to Ed, handing him a roll of bills.  “I managed to get from my folks the amount I had used, including the sum for the—­the diamond ring, and what I had to give Lem.”