"Suppose the key won't fit?" he thought with uneasiness.
It would have been lucky for Roswell if the key had not fitted. But it proved to fit exactly. Turning it in the lock, the drawer opened, and before him lay a pile of bills.
How much or how little there might be Roswell did not stop to examine. He knew that a customer might come in at any time, and he must do at once what he meant to do. At the top of the pile there was a five-dollar bill. He took it, slipped it hastily into his vest-pocket, relocked the drawer, and, walking away from it, began to dust the books upon the counter.
He felt that he had taken the decisive step. He was supplied with the necessary money to pay the initiation fee. The question was, would Mr. Baker find it out?
Suppose he should, how would it be possible to evade suspicion, or to throw it upon some one else?
"If I could make him think it was the match boy," thought Roswell, "I should be killing two birds with one stone. I must see what can be done."
When Mr. Baker returned, Roswell feared he would go to the drawer, but he did not seem inclined to do this.
He just entered the store, and said, "Mr. Jones, I am obliged to go over to Brooklyn on a little business, and I may not be back this afternoon."
"Very well, sir," said Mr. Jones.
Roswell breathed freer after he had left the shop. It had occurred to him as possible that if the money were missed, he might be searched, in which case the key and the bill in his pocket would be enough to convict him. Now he should not see Mr. Baker again till the next day probably, when the money would be disposed of.