"Well, while we were on the subject I thought I'd like to call your attention to just one thing," Fred continued, persistently. "And after you've heard what I want to say, I think you'll agree with me that Bris—er, Andy, couldn't well have been guilty of taking these last opals. Why, he surely hasn't been in your house this whole day, has he, Miss Muster?"
"N—no, not that I know of, for a fact, Fred," she said, slowly.
"You keep the doors locked, don't you, ma'am, so Bristles, or any one else for that matter, couldn't have come in this morning, after you counted those things?"
"Yes, the doors are always locked. I am very particular about that. When the grocer's boy or the one from the butcher, come for orders, they wait in the kitchen while Mammy comes to me here, and we talk over what we need."
"Did that happen this morning, ma'am? Were both those boys inside here to-day?" Fred asked.
The old lady looked sharply at him when he said this.
"Ah! now I see in what direction your suspicions lie, Fred," she remarked, her face lighting up. "And if you can prove to my satisfaction that one of those boys took my opals, and they are returned to me, I will say nothing, do nothing, to prosecute the guilty one. Perhaps I was foolish to leave the door of opportunity open; the temptation within their reach. In that case the fault was partly mine."
"But I haven't accused anybody, ma'am; only I wondered whether one of those tradesmen's boys could have done it," Fred went on. "I'm going to look them up right away, and if I can recover the opals, and make the thief confess before you, then that will end the affair, will it?"
"So far as he is concerned, it will," the old lady answered; "but I shall never forgive myself for suspecting my niece's son of such a thing. Fred, do you suppose he would come to see me if you took him a message?"
"Who, Andrew?" exclaimed the delighted Fred. "Why, I'm as sure of it as that I draw breath. He'd almost fly here, he'd be that glad you believed him innocent. Do you want me to tell him, ma'am?"