"Is it possible the villain has fooled us?" said Johnson, frowning ominously. "If he has, we'll get even with him—I swear it!"
"I don't know what to think, colonel," said Travers. "You can tell better than I, for you saw him about this business."
"He didn't seem like it, for he caught at my suggestion greedily. There's another possibility," added Johnson, after a pause, with a searching glance at his two confederates. "How do I know but you two have secured the bonds, and palmed off this dummy upon me?"
Both men hastily disclaimed doing anything of the kind, and Johnson was forced to believe them, not from any confidence he felt in them, but from his conviction that they were not astute enough to think of any such treachery.
"This must be looked into," he said slowly. "There has been treachery somewhere. It lies between you and the messenger, though I did not dream that either would be up to such a thing."
"You don't think the bank people did it, do you?" suggested Brandon.
"I don't know," said Johnson slowly. "I can't understand how they could learn what was in the wind, unless one of you three blabbed."
Of course, Travers and Brandon asseverated stoutly that they had not breathed a word to any third party.
Johnson was deeply perplexed, and remained silent for five minutes.
At length he announced his decision.