“Now, tell us in your own way what happened between you and him on the following evening.”
“Well, feeling somewhat uneasy about the safety of the railroad building I went down there late in the evening—about eleven o’clock, I think. I took a memorandum-book from the safe and was sitting at my uncle’s desk looking it over, when suddenly Manning entered the office. He said he wanted a hand-car with which to run to a telegraph station a few miles out on the road and send a dispatch to his paper. I, of course, agreed to let him have it, but tried to dissuade him from going on account of the dangerous nature of the trip.
“While we were talking he stepped behind me, and the first thing I knew he was looking into the open safe. I told him that was against the rules, and that I could not allow even him to remain in that position. He laughed and said, ‘That’s all right,’ but did not move away. Then I tried to push him a little to one side, so that I could close the safe-door. He resisted, and we had something very like a wrestling-match. At last we both fell to the floor, overturning the table on which the lamp stood as we did so.
“Manning was underneath, and he said, ‘Let me up, Ben; we have carried this joke far enough.’ I said, ‘All right, I’m glad if it is only a joke,’ and let him up. When I had re-lighted the lamp Manning left, saying that he must go to the hotel for something and would meet the hand-car at the station. Then I restored the office to order, locked the safe, and went out to see about the car.”
“Do you think any thing was taken from the safe at that time?”
“No; I am certain there was not.”
“What did you do after ordering the hand-car?”
“I made the round of the buildings, caused the arrest of a striker whom I found lurking near one of them, helped extinguish a fire that broke out in one of the shops, and then, utterly exhausted, returned to my room and went to bed.”
“Where was the key of the safe when you last saw it that night?”