“Not yet; but probably I shall before long.”
“Who is it, Colonel Ross?” asked Mrs. Gilbert, with interest.
“Madam,” said the Colonel, slowly, “it pains me to say that the person seen prowling round my house, and looking in at my window, was your son, Harry!”
“Harry!” ejaculated the widow, scarcely thinking she had heard aright.
“It’s ridiculous!” exclaimed Uncle Obed.
“Colonel Ross,” said Harry, rising to his feet, and confronting the visitor, with clear eyes and an expression of honest indignation, “do you mean to say that you suspect me of stealing any of your property?”
“Young man, I advise you not to be impudent or brazen-faced. Do you mean to deny that you were near my house last evening between half-past nine and ten o’clock?”
“No, I don’t. I did pass your house about that time.”
“I am glad you have the sense to own it. You may as well confess the rest—that you entered through the unlocked door, opened my small trunk, and took out two government bonds of a hundred dollars each.”
“Whoever charges me with that utters a falsehood,” said Harry, boldly. “I passed your house, but I did not enter it, and did not even look in the window, and it is news to me that the door was unlocked, or the keys on the desk. In fact, I didn’t know you had a trunk in which you kept your bonds.”