“Rockwell?” burst from Clancy. “Do you mean to say that Rockwell hired you to steal that note from me?”
“That’s what I mean to say,” said Hibbard.
“Why?” asked the judge. “What was his reason?”
“He don’t want to pay the note. If Clancy hasn’t got it, how can he collect on it?”
“Oh, he’s a shark, Uncle Si is,” struck in Fortune. “That’s what I told Red. Maybe he’ll believe me, now.”
The judge turned to Clancy.
“It was an unindorsed note?” he asked.
“Yes,” said Clancy, “it was a note for a thousand dollars, given to my father. I came to Phoenix to collect it. Rockwell said the note was all right, and that he would get the money together, in a week or two, and take it up. Meanwhile, I was to work in his garage at fifty dollars a month.”
“That was just a scheme,” put in Hibbard, “to get Clancy in a place where it would be easy to take the note away from him.”
“And you and Chantay Seeche Tom,” said Larry, with a laugh, “tied up the wrong fellow, and couldn’t find the note!”