“Perhaps so, but I may be doing Mr. McCracken an injustice.”
“If ever you get into trouble, Bernard, don’t forget that Jack Staples is your friend. I have got a few dollars stowed away in a bank at home, and they are yours if you need them.”
“I will remember it, Jack, and thank you, whether I need them or not.”
A day or two later something happened that made Bernard still more suspicious of his guardian and Professor Puffer.
CHAPTER XVI. A SCRAP OF PAPER.
Bernard was in the stateroom one day during the absence of Professor Puffer, when he noticed on the floor a fragment of paper, looking like a portion of a letter with writing upon it. He picked it up and mechanically read the words which it contained.
The paper had been torn irregularly across, so that it contained no complete sentence. The words it did contain arrested his attention. This is a transcript of them:
the boy in my way.