"I don't believe he's got one friend there who treats him any better than I do. The boys are all shy of him."
"And well they may be. That boy got a key somewhere that will fit our door, and came in here and took that box. You say he has not any friends on whom he can depend in the office?"
"Not one. If he has any friends, none of us know who they are."
"Then he must be alone in stealing the box from us. He has it there in his room, for he has no other place to hide it. Do you know what sort of a key he has to fit his door?"
"Of course I do. I was with him when he got it. It is a combination key; one that he folds up when he puts it into his pocket."
"Do you believe you can buy another like it?"
"By George! That's an idea. Let us go down and find out. Then to-morrow, if I can get away, I will come up here and go through his room."
That was Jack's notion entirely. He wanted to see "the biter bit"—to know that he would feel, when he awoke some fine morning and found his fortune gone, just how they were feeling now. They put on their coats and locked the door,—it seemed a mockery to them now to lock the door when their fortune was gone,—and, after walking briskly for a few minutes, turned into the store where Casper had purchased his key. When Julian told the clerk that he wanted to see some combination keys, he threw out upon the counter a box which was filled to overflowing.
"Do you remember a telegraph boy who was in here several months ago and bought a combination lock to fit his door?" asked Julian. "I was in here at the time, and I know he bought the lock of you."
"Seems to me that I do remember something about that," said the clerk, turning around to the shelves behind him and taking down another box, "and we have got just one lock of that sort left."