“Now let me understand the situation, gentlemen,” said the voice of the third speaker, evidently the lawyer.
Tom clapped his hand on Sam’s shoulder.
“We’ve discovered ’em!” he exclaimed exultingly.
CHAPTER XXIV
RESTITUTION
Softly Sam crossed the room and closed the door. This left him and Tom alone and unobserved in the vacant offices formerly occupied by Mr. Royse. The closing of the door also enabled them to hear more plainly, as it shut out noises from the street.
“Just state your case, Mr. Doolittle,” said the lawyer. “And be as brief as possible, as I am very busy.”
“Well, it’s this way,” began Mr. Doolittle. He then went into details concerning the business relations he had had with Tom’s father. Much of this was new to Tom, but some was an old story. In a way, however, it revealed to him that his father had trusted Mr. Doolittle and Captain Hawkesbury a great deal farther than was prudent. It also revealed the fact that Mr. Taylor had larger business dealings than Tom had suspected.
Most of what Mr. Doolittle related was strictly businesslike—sharp practice, perhaps, but nothing criminal in it. Tom waited anxiously for some reference to the railroad land—that on which stood one end of the big bridge.
Presently Mr. Doolittle, with Captain Hawkesbury putting in a word or two, came to that. It was a complicated transaction. Mr. Taylor did owe some money to the two conspirators, but they could have paid themselves by the sale of a much less valuable piece of property than that along the river where the railroad was sure to come.
“But we thought we had a right to make as much as we could, since we took the risks,” Mr. Doolittle said.