He spoke lightly, but there was an anxiety underlying the lightness that did not escape Phoebe’s notice.
“Which is the real Ritchie box, Sam?” she asked breathlessly.
“I don’t know, Phoebe.”
“Where did you get this one?”
“I—can’t—tell—you. That’s my private business, an’ I’ll ask you not to mention to a soul on earth that you’ve seen it.”
She looked at him with a puzzled expression. Then she asked:
“Sam, does Lawyer Kellogg buy those boxes at the hardware store?”
“So they tell me,” he replied, shifting uneasily in his chair. “Kellogg’s got a few clients, you know, and he keeps his papers in a good deal the same way as the judge did—only he’s got a big safe to put the boxes in.”
“I suppose no one else in Riverdale ever buys such boxes?” she continued.
“I don’t know. Might, if they had any use for ’em,” he replied.