‘Robbed!’
‘The store been robbed, do you say?’
‘Yes,’ replied Brown, ‘it was robbed early this morning.’
‘At what time?’
‘Why, at about four—at what time do you ask? Well, to judge of the exact time in which the store was broken open, you must, I think, inquire of those who were here. Ha! ha! ha!’
‘They cannot have taken much,’ said Monteagle, ‘or you could not be so—that is, you could not speak so lightly on the occasion.’
‘That safe’s gone!’
‘What! the little safe that we rescued the other day?’
‘The same which was taken from the skiff by Vandewater himself.’
‘Why, Mr. Brown, that’s a serious loss. There was money in that safe—’