"No," said Henrietta. "But because a boy won't look at you is no reason to say that he is a thief."
"He does look at you, anyway," said Billy innocently. "He looked at me."
"It was clever in him to take our checkbooks," said Bartlett.
"He will forge our names," declared the general. "I made a check out to pay for the board here, signed it, too, I remember, and then I found some cash and thought I would use that and went to bed and forgot to destroy the check. I know it was the stable-boy for my room has a balcony in front, over the porch, and last night it was so warm I left the door open."
"Maybe it was," agreed Henrietta. "I hate to suspect him, though."
CHAPTER XVII
ALPHONSE RIDES AWAY
"The stable-boy would have access to the back of the house, too," said the general, who felt that if he had not become a general and had escaped being a master mechanic, he would have been a famous detective.
"Yes," agreed the Watermelon. "But I don't think it is the boy. I was out until after eleven, and just before I came in I saw him drive up with the girl. They had been out to some dance and he left her and drove on."
The girl appeared in the doorway wiping a plate, slip-shod and awkward. Henrietta blushed, the general was painfully confused and the other three turned their attention hastily to their food.