"I did not take it at all, sir."
"Have you lent the key to any one?"
"No, sir. I did not know I had it."
"I don't know what to do in the matter," said the bookseller, turning to Mr. Jones, his assistant. "It seems clear to me that the boy took the missing bill."
"I am afraid so," said Jones, who was a kind-hearted man, and pitied Mark. "But I don't know when he could have had the chance. He is never left alone in the store."
"Roswell," said Mr. Baker, "have you left Mark alone in the store at any time within two or three days?"
Roswell saw the point of the inquiry, and determined, as a measure of safety, to add falsehood to his former offence.
"Yes, sir," he said, in an apologetic tone, "I left him in the store for two or three minutes yesterday."
"Why did you leave him? Did you go out of the store?"
"Yes, sir. A friend was passing, and I went out to speak to him. I don't think I stayed more than two or three minutes."