“Oh, probably most of the securities could be replaced upon proper proof of loss. But I don’t believe there’s any danger of their being lost. I believe Tunstall knows where they are, and that he devised the puzzle, or, at least, suggested it. The verse sounds very much like him.”
For a moment, no one spoke; but I know I grew pale at the thought of how completely we were in that man’s power. I could see Tom grow pale, too, and he stared across at me with eyes almost starting from his head.
“But,” faltered mother, at last, “if he knows where they are, he may have removed them.”
“Yes, that’s possible,” assented Mr. Chester. “But perhaps he’s so confident you’ll never find them that’s he’s content to wait till the end of the month, so that everything will be quite straight and regular.”
I felt as though my brain would burst in the effort I made to look at this new possibility from all sides.
“Besides,” added Mr. Chester, “it wouldn’t do him any good to steal them. Stocks and bonds aren’t of much use to anyone unless they are legally come by.”
“But he might remove them,” said Dick, “to prevent our finding them, and then put them back.”
“Oh, be sure of one thing,” cried Mrs. Chester. “If he had any hand in hiding them he did it so well that they won’t be found till he finds them himself!”
“I don’t believe he knows,” I burst out, at last. “If he knew, he wouldn’t have read the key when he picked it up after I let it fall. If he knew what it was, he’d have handed it back to us without looking at it.”
Mr. Chester nodded.