“Yes—yes, sir,” faltered Mr. Keller. Now was the critical moment, thought the old gentleman. “I shall have to tell him they are lost and he will discharge me.”
Ted was wishing there was some way of slipping the keys into Mr. Keller’s pocket, but it could not be done without Mr. Narr seeing it.
“Yes, about your bunch of my keys,” went on the rich man, with a chuckle. “I just came to tell you that you needn’t bother about letting me take your bunch. I’ve found my own keys, so I won’t need yours!”
Mr. Keller did not seem to know what to say.
“You—you won’t need my keys?” he stammered. “You—you——”
“No, I have my own,” and Mr. Narr drew a jingling bunch from his pocket. “I thought I had left them at my town house, but I found them in the island cottage. So I came over to tell you I wouldn’t need yours. I sent word by the shipwrecked children, you know, for you to have your bunch ready for me.”
“Yes,” murmured Mr. Keller, “I know, and——”
Just then Teddy dropped the bunch of keys which fell with a jingle on the sand.
“Hello!” exclaimed Mr. Narr, looking at them sharply. “They look just like my keys.”
“I—I think they’re my keys—the bunch I lost!” said Mr. Keller. “I was going to tell you, Mr. Narr, that I had lost your keys. My wife lost her wedding ring at the same time, but how my keys came here I don’t know! Oh, I don’t know—I——”