“If it had not been for your overbearing manner and absurd display of authority,” he said to Ben, “there would have been no serious outbreak here, nor any destruction of the company’s property. Now I’ll trouble you for the key to the safe.”
With all his known faults Ben had never been suspected of dishonesty by his uncle, who was obliged to trust his assistant implicitly in many things.
Ben hesitated a moment and then said that he had left the key in his room for greater safety, and would be obliged to go there for it.
“A pretty place your room is to leave a thing of such value!” growled the superintendent. “You should not have let it go out of your possession for an instant.”
“I was afraid I might be robbed by the strikers,” answered Ben.
“Nonsense! The strikers are not the sort of fellows to rob individuals. You ought to know that as well as I. Now hurry up and get the key. I must have the books out of the safe at once.”
Ben left the office and in a few minutes returned. With a well assumed air of agitation he said that the key was nowhere to be found, and that it must have been stolen from his room during his absence from town.
“Whom do you suspect of stealing it?” demanded his uncle.
“I don’t suspect anybody unless it is some of the strikers.”
“The strikers again! Always the strikers,” sneered the other. “Well, sir, we will soon find out. If the key was stolen it was done for the purpose of robbing the safe. I shall have the lock picked, and if any thing is missing I will believe that the key was taken from your room as you say. If every thing is all right in the safe I shall be forced to believe that you have lost the key, and have trumped up this story to conceal your carelessness. In that case the position of assistant superintendent of this division will instantly become vacant, for I shall have no further use for you.”