"How did it happen?" asked Percy, curious to know how suspicion could have fallen upon Bert.
"It appears that Mr. Jones laid a twenty-dollar bill on his desk—a very careless proceeding, by the way—while he was waiting upon a customer in another part of the store. About five minutes afterward the Barton boy called upon him to fill a small can with kerosene, and actually had the hardihood to offer his own twenty-dollar bill in payment."
"Bert Barton offered Mr. Jones a twenty-dollar bill?" asked Percy, in great surprise.
"Yes; no wonder you are surprised at his boldness."
"Perhaps it wasn't the same bill," Percy was constrained to suggest.
"You must be a fool, Percy. Where else could he have got so large a bill as that? We all know how poor the Bartons are. Besides, the bill on the desk had disappeared."
Percy was silent for a moment. He felt bewildered, and could not understand it at all. He knew very well that it was not the same bill. But where did the other bill come from? How happened a poor boy like Bert Barton to have such a large bill in his possession? That was certainly mysterious.
"Was—was Bert arrested?" he asked, in a hesitating tone.
"He would have been but for the interference of a meddlesome young lawyer, who, it appears, is staying at the hotel."
"Mr. Conway?"