“Yes.”
“Why, he must have known that you had been sent there?”
“He did know it, Allison; but he asserted, as you know, that I stole the keys from the drawer in the table, while I was here that Saturday afternoon.”
“But I proved that you did not,” cried Allison exultantly, “and he didn’t seem to be very well pleased about it, either.”
“No,” said Gerald gravely; “he had reasons of his own for wanting to ruin my reputation.”
“What reasons?”
“He has long hated me—he has been scheming for nearly two years to get me discharged from the bank, and I am confident that it was he who tampered with the books, to make them show that I had been dishonest, although, of course, I cannot prove this.”
“It was a bright idea of getting that expert,” said Allison.
“Yes, that was Professor Emerson’s idea, and it worked well. The professor returned from Washington only two days before the trial, and, upon learning the charges, immediately said he knew a man who, he thought, would help me. He looked him up, then the two demanded the books for examination, and it did not take Mr. Plum very long to decide that some very crooked work had been done by somebody whose name was not Winchester,” Gerald explained. “I watched Hubbard while he was making his statements,” he added, “and I knew by the look in his eyes that he had been balked in a game which he had felt pretty sure of winning.”