Of course I was highly delighted with the success of my search, and as I brought forth the pocketbook all the others gave a cry of surprise.
"You've got it, Roger!" ejaculated my uncle. "You've got it, just as sure as guns is guns!"
"So I have," I replied, as coolly as I could, though I was at the top notch of excitement.
"Better examine it," put in Mr. Harrison, cautiously. "It may be empty."
"Empty!" cried Kate in dismay, and the word sent a chill through my own heart.
With nervous fingers I tore the pocketbook open. I suppose I ought to have given it to the widow, but I was too excited to think of what was just right and what was not.
"The money was in a piece of newspaper," said the Widow Canby. "I had—ah, there it is!"
And sure enough, there it was—nearly three hundred dollars—safe and sound.
I almost felt like dancing a jig, and could not refrain from throwing up my hat, which I did in such a way that it caught in a limb of a tree, and forced me to climb up to recover it.
As I was about jumping to the ground I heard a buggy pass on the road. Looking down, I was surprised to see that it contained Mr. Aaron Woodward and Chris Holtzmann. On seeing the party on the ground below, the merchant stopped his horse and jumped out.