"Jefers-pelters!" croaked Jasper. "It was enough to scare anybody!"
"That may be. But you weren't too scared to grab this box when you ran. And you must have hidden it under your coat as you left the mill. I am going to tell my uncle all about it—and how we saw you down the hill yonder, looking at this very box before you thrust it back in its hiding place."
Jasper Parloe grew enraged rather than frightened by this threat.
"Tell!" he barked. "You tell what ye please. Provin's another thing. I don't know nothin' about the box. I never opened it. I don't know what's in it. And you kin tell Jabe that if he tries to make me trouble over it I'll make him trouble in a certain locality—he knows where and what about."
"I shall give him the box and tell him how it came into my possession," repeated Ruth, firmly, and then she and her friends drove away.
They hurried Tubby back to the Red Mill and Ruth ran in ahead of her friends with the cash-box in her hands. The moment Uncle Jabez saw it he started forward with a loud cry. He almost tore the box from her grasp; but then became gentle again in a moment.
"Gal!" he ejaculated, softly, "how'd ye git this away from Parloe?"
"Oh, Uncle! how did you know he had it?"
"I've been suspicious. He couldn't scarce keep it to hisself. He ain't opened it, I see."
"I don't think he has."