"I beg your pardon, sir," said Justin Wood, "but it is my money that is being spent."
"I was not aware that you were in the boy's company," said Ezra Little, respectfully, for he saw that Mr. Wood was a gentleman of social position. "I must explain that your companion left my house a week since under discreditable circumstances."
"He told me the circumstances. You assumed that the money he had in his possession was stolen."
"There can hardly be a doubt of it. There was a five-dollar bill—and the missing pocketbook contained a five-dollar bill."
"I am personally cognizant of the fact that the money was his own. Indeed, I helped to recover it for him from a swindler who had robbed him of it."
"This does not explain the pocketbook being found in his chamber."
"Where your son put it."
"This is a strange charge to make, sir. Have you any grounds for making it?"
"Scott and I called at your house this evening. The servant said that an hour before the discovery of the pocketbook your son was seen by her coming out of Scott's room."
Ezra Little looked startled, and Mrs. Little looked distressed.