“Prove it! Why, of course, I can prove it,” replied Gerald, a little smile of scorn for his recent fear curling his lips, and a consciousness of rectitude and security supplanting it, “I have Mr. Brewster’s note of yesterday, asking me to come to him, as he had a special commission for me, and then the very fact of my having his keys proves that I am here under orders,” and again he held them up to his companion’s view.
“H’m! so he wrote you to come to him, did he?” queried John Hubbard thoughtfully. “Where is the note? I should like to see it.”
Gerald put his hand into his coat-pocket; then suddenly remembered that he had put on his best suit that morning.
“Ah!” he said, “it is in the pocket of my other coat.”
John Hubbard’s eyes gleamed with a cunning light at this information.
“Well, you will doubtless need all the proof you can bring to get you out of this scrape,” he gruffly observed. “Maybe you can produce such a note, but I doubt it. Did any one see Mr. Brewster give you those keys?”
Gerald’s heart sank at the question, as he remembered that he and his employer had been utterly alone throughout their interview, except for the few minutes that Allison was in the room, and he was sure she had heard nothing that would prove the truth of what he had asserted. At least he knew she was not there when the keys were given to him.
“You have no right to question me like this, or to doubt my word, and I will have no further conversation with you about the matter,” he responded, after a moment of thought.
But he was deathly pale as he stooped to recover the box that had fallen. He found that it was not broken; the lock had only been forced by the fall. He carefully arranged the jewels which had been somewhat displaced, although, fortunately, none had been spilled; then, shutting the box, he relocked it with the key which he took from his vest-pocket.
John Hubbard watched him warily while he was thus engaged. “I will take charge of those things,” he sternly observed, as Gerald was about to replace the key in his pocket.