“Really—­I am”—­he said, “I must disappoint you.  My time will be wholly taken up by matters of business, and I can’t go with you.”

“You don’t need to.  I can take care of myself, and we can meet at the depot at four o’clock.”

“Besides, I can’t supply you with any money for shopping.”

“I have enough.  I might have liked a little more, but I can make it do.”

“Perhaps it will look better if we go in company,” thought Prince Duncan.  “She needn’t be in my way, for we can part at the station.”

“Very well, Jane,” he said quietly.  “If you won’t expect me to dance attendance upon you, I withdraw my objections.”

The eleven-o’clock train for New York had among its passengers Mr. and Mrs. Duncan.

There was another passenger whom neither of them noticed—­a small, insignificant-looking man—­who occasionally directed a quick glance at the portly bank president.

CHAPTER XIX

EFFECTING A LOAN

Prince Duncan was unusually taciturn during the railroad journey—­so much so that his wife noticed it, and inquired the reason.

“Business, my dear,” answered the bank president.  “I am rather perplexed by a matter of business.”

“Business connected with the bank, Mr. Duncan?” asked his wife.

“No, private business.”

“Have you heard anything yet of the stolen bonds?”

“Not yet.”

“Have you any suspicion?”

“None that I am at liberty to mention,” answered Duncan, looking mysterious.

“I suppose you no longer suspect that boy Luke?”

“I don’t know.  The man who owns to having given him the tin box for safe-keeping is, in my opinion, a suspicious character.  I shouldn’t be at all surprised if he were a jailbird.”

The small man already referred to, who occupied a seat just across the aisle, here smiled slightly, but whether at the president’s remark, is not clear.

“What did he call himself?”

“Roland Reed—­no doubt an alias.”

“It seems to me you ought to follow him up, and see if you can’t convict him of the theft.”

“You may be sure, Jane, that the president and directors of the Groveton Bank will do their duty in this matter,” said Mr. Duncan rather grandiloquently.  “By the way, I have received this morning a letter from Mr. Armstrong, the owner of the stolen bonds, saying that he will be at home in a few days.”

“Does he know of the loss?”

“Not yet.”

“How will he take it?”

“Really, Jane, you are very inquisitive this morning.  I presume he will be very much annoyed.”

The car had become quite warm, and Mr. Duncan, who had hitherto kept on his overcoat, rose to take it off.  Unfortunately for him he quite forgot the bonds he had in the inside pocket, and in his careless handling of the coat the package fell upon the floor of the car, one slipping out of the envelope a bond for one thousand dollars.