"Ackerman must have seen you put it there some time, or take it from there," said Walker. "At any rate, he found it as soon as you went out, and went to work on the safe. You ought to have seen his face when I opened the door and surprised him. I tell you, Murray, that boy is a hard community. One would think that he would have been overwhelmed with fear and shame when he found that he was caught, but he wasn't. He tried to explain matters by saying that you had given him the key and the combination, too, and told him to open the safe if he could."
"What a villain!" exclaimed Murray, indignantly.
"Of course he is. When he saw that I couldn't swallow any such story as that, he showed fight. I locked the door and thought I would keep him in here until you came, but I didn't dare do it."
When the second clerk ceased speaking, Murray looked down at the floor, shook his head and sighed deeply. "So that's what he has been hanging around me for, is it?" said he. "An hour ago I wouldn't have believed such a thing of him."
"What are you going to do about it?"
"I don't know. Wait until I get my wits together so that I can think clearly. Walker, I don't believe I can ever trust anybody again."
"You'd better never trust a stranger. You didn't show your usual good sense in taking up with Ackerman as you did. You ought to go straight to the old man with it. If I were captain of this boat I'd put him and his trunk ashore right here in the woods."
"I'll tell you what I think about it," said Murray, suddenly straightening up, and looking at his assistant as if a bright idea had just occurred to him. "It's an ill wind that blows nobody good, and it seems to me that we can make this thing benefit us in some way. As the matter stands now, I am as likely to be punished as Ackerman is, and in the same way—by being kicked off the boat. I will be accused of negligence of duty. Now, I think I see a way to avoid that, and put a few dollars into the pockets of each of us at the same time."
"I am in for that," said Walker.
"I thought you would be. You say this fellow is a hard one, and that's all the better for us, for he will not be satisfied with making one attempt on the safe. He'll come again, depend upon it, so I say let's hush this matter up, lisp not a word of it to anybody, and keep our eyes open and catch him in the act. Of course Richardson would hear of it, and what would be the result? He'd say: 'Those are wide-awake clerks aboard that boat—honest and always looking out for things. Boys, here's a check for a couple of hundred apiece, to show you that your fidelity is appreciated.' Eh?"