“I don’t know.  Does that make any difference?”

“It makes some difference.  Those that have longest to run are most valuable.”

“I can easily tell,” said the housekeeper, as she rose from her chair and opened the bureau drawer, in full confidence that the bonds were safe.

It was an exciting moment for Willis Ford, knowing the sad discovery that awaited her.

She put her hand in that part of the drawer where she supposed the bonds to be, and found nothing.  A shade of anxiety overspread her face, and she searched hurriedly in other parts of the drawer.

“Don’t you find them, mother?” asked Willis.

“It is very strange,” said Mrs. Estabrook, half to herself.

“What is strange?”

“I always kept the bonds in the right-hand corner of this drawer.”

“And you can’t find them?”

“I have looked all over the drawer.”

“You may have put them, by mistake, in one of the other drawers.”

“Heaven grant it!” said Mrs. Estabrook, her face white with anxiety.

“Let me help you, mother,” said Willis, rising.

She did not object, for her hands trembled with nervousness.

The other drawers were opened and were thoroughly searched, but, of course, the bonds were not found.

Mrs. Estabrook seemed near fainting.

“I have been robbed,” she said.  “I am ruined.”

“But who could have robbed you?” asked Ford, innocently.

“I-don’t-know.  Oh, Willis! it was cruel!” and the poor woman burst into tears.  “All these years I have been saving, and now I have lost all.  I shall die in the poorhouse after all.”

“Not while I am living, mother,” said Willis.  “But the bonds must be found.  They must be mislaid.”

“No, no! they are stolen.  I shall never see them again.”

“But who has taken them?  Ha!  I have an idea.”

“What is it?” asked the housekeeper, faintly.

“That boy—­Grant Thornton—­he lives in the house, doesn’t he?”

“Yes,” answered Mrs. Estabrook, in excitement.  “Do you think he can have robbed me?”

“What a fool I am!  I ought to have suspected when—–­”

“When what?”

“When he brought some bonds to me to-day to sell.”

“He did!” exclaimed Mrs. Estabrook; “what were they?”

“A five-hundred-dollar and a hundred-dollar bond.”

“I had a five-hundred and five one-hundred-dollar bonds.  They were mine—­the young villain!”

“I greatly fear so, mother.”

“You ought to have kept them, Willis.  Oh! why didn’t you?  Where is the boy?  I will see Mr. Reynolds at once.”

“Wait a minute, till I tell you all I know.  The boy said the bonds were handed to him by an acquaintance.”

“It was a falsehood.”

“Do you know the number of your bonds, mother?”

“Yes, I have them noted down, somewhere.”