CHAPTER XIII. THE EAVESDROPPER.
Fred Sheldon had learned one most important fact. Beyond all doubt the letters "N. H. H." stood for the name Nathaniel Higgens Heyland, who for some months past had been attached as an employee to Colonel Bandman's menagerie and circus.
By some means, hard to understand, this young man had dropped his pocket-knife, bearing these initials, on the floor of the upper room of the brick mansion, at the time he entered it disguised as an ordinary tramp, and with the sole purpose of robbery.
It was proven, therefore, that Bud had committed that great offense against the laws of his country, as well as against those of his Maker, and he was deserving of severe punishment.
But young, as bright, honest Fred Sheldon was, he knew that the hardest work of all remained before him.
How was the silver plate to be recovered, for the task would be less than half performed should the owners fail to secure that?
How could the guilt of Bud Heyland be brought home to him, and who was his partner?
Although Fred was sure that the stranger who called himself Cyrus Sutton was the other criminal, yet he saw no way in which that fact could be established, nor could he believe that the proof which he held of Bud's criminality would convince others.
Bud was such an evil lad that he would not hesitate to tell any number of falsehoods, and he was so skilled in wrong talking, as well as wrong doing, that he might deceive every one else.
Fred Sheldon felt that he needed now the counsel of one person above all others. The one man to whom his thoughts first turned was Archie Jackson, the constable, and he was afraid to trust him, for the temptation of obtaining the large reward offered was likely to lead him to do injustice to the boy.