“I will tell you,” he answered. “I took the liberty to go to your money drawer and mark four bills this afternoon. I marked them with a red cross on the right-hand corner of the reverse side. Well, Benton took two of those bills with him this evening when he stopped work.”
“How do you know?”
“I was near by when he left the restaurant. I followed him at a distance, and saw him enter Poole’s gambling-house.”
“Well?”
“I entered too, and took my place at a neighboring table. He produced a five-dollar bill, when some one suggested that gold was preferable. Upon that I offered to give him gold for bills. He produced two fives, and I gave him two gold pieces for them.”
“Well?”
“Here they are.”
The detective drew from his wallet two bank-notes, and showed Smithson the red cross on the reverse side of each.
CHAPTER XXI.
ALBERT BENTON IS UNMASKED.
“That’s pretty conclusive evidence, isn’t it?” said John Vincent, tapping the marked bills.