“That it doesn’t concern me.  I may be wrong about the boy taking the bonds, but that doesn’t involve me.  There may have been another party.”

“You forget the testimony of the telegraph boy—­that he saw you give the bonds to your friend there.”

“The boy told a falsehood!”

“I am in a position to confirm the boy’s testimony,” said the detective.

Willis Ford gasped for breath and seemed ready to sink into the floor.  What was coming next?

CHAPTER XXIII

JUSTICE TRIUMPHS

Mr. Graham turned to the broker and addressed further remarks to him.

“Your statement that four hundred dollars remained to be accounted for, led me to conclude that they would be found in the possession of the party who had abstracted the others.  I therefore obtained a search warrant and visited the room occupied by that gentleman, whose name I believe is Willis Ford.”

This was an unexpected stroke.  Ford did not speak, but kept his eyes fixed upon the detective in evident panic.

“I have just come from Mr. Ford’s room,” he resumed.  “These are what I found there.”

He drew from his pocket a long envelope, from which he took four government bonds.

“Will you be kind enough, Mrs. Estabrook,” said the broker, gravely, “to examine these bonds and determine whether they are yours?”

The housekeeper took them mechanically and examined them.

“They are mine,” she said; “but I cannot believe Willis took them.”

“I did not,” said Ford, hoarsely, but his eyes were downcast.

“Will you account for their being in your room, then, Mr. Ford?” inquired the broker, sternly.

“That boy must have put them there.  I know nothing of them.  I am as much surprised as you are.”

“We have had enough of this, Mr. Ford,” said the broker, coldly.  “Your guilt is evident.  In robbing your stepmother you have committed a serious crime; but in attempting to throw the guilt upon an innocent boy, you have been guilty of an offense still more detestable, and one which I cannot forgive.  You cannot remain in my employment another day.  If you will call at the office in the morning, I will pay your salary to the end of the month.  That will end all relations between us.”

Willis Ford looked like a convicted criminal.  For the moment all his hardihood and bravado deserted him.

“Can this be true, Willis?” wailed his stepmother.  “Is it possible that you took my bonds, and would have left me to an old age of poverty?”

“No,” answered Ford, with a return of his usual assurance.  “I am as innocent as a babe unborn.  I am the victim of a conspiracy.  As Mr. Reynolds is determined to shield his favorite by throwing the blame on it, I must submit.  The time will come when he will acknowledge my innocence.  Mother, I will satisfy you later, but I do not believe you will think me guilty.  Gentlemen, I bid you all good-evening.”