"And what did you say?" cried the astonished Frank.
"Well, feeling pretty perk over a discovery I had just made, I listened to the crafty old varmint."
"And what did he say?"
"He told me that you had stolen a diamond bracelet from Mace, the jeweler."
"Which was a falsehood," asserted Frank with vehemence.
"Yes, I can believe that," nodded Dobbins, "seeing that Roseberry said so. He then began to tell me how they were trying to have you give up that bracelet. He said that if I would have you arrested for smashing the house, it would break you down and make you confess about the bracelet. Anyhow, it would look so bad for you that your father would settle all the damage."
"The villain!" commented Frank.
"Them's my sentiments, too, Frank. Mebbe, if things hadn't turned out as they did, I might have acted mean and measly, too, but I was so tickled over the way they did come out that I just laughed at your boyish mischief of letting the old shack slide downhill."
"But I had no hand in anything of the sort," declared Frank stoutly.
"Let it pass, Frank, let it pass," chuckled Dobbins unbelievingly. "You see, when I came to look over the old ruins I come to where the old storeroom wall had busted out. You know it's always been a mystery to me what had become of my wife Sairey's scrapings and earnings?"