Hines smiled sardonically. “Oh, can’t he, eh? You won’t say that, my dear girl, when you’ve read all the particulars. The post-office inspectors say they’ve got a mighty strong case against him. They’re tickled to death to have nabbed him. There’s been lots of mail stolen from Branch X Y of late, and they think they’ll be able to put it all up to Sheridan.”
His glance fell again upon the diamond ring which glistened upon the third finger of her left hand. “Say, if I was you I’d take that off,” he said. “A nice girl like you don’t want to wear jewelry that was bought with the proceeds of a larceny. It ain’t decent. Take it off, and I’ll get you a better one. I’ll give you a diamond twice as big—if you’ll promise to wear it on the same finger.”
The girl’s eyes flashed scornfully. “Thank you, but I much prefer to keep this one,” she said. “It wasn’t bought with stolen money. That’s a falsehood. Owen bought it with money he’d been saving for a year. He told me so himself.”
“Oh, indeed!” sneered Hines. “And you mean to say you’re willin’ to believe a fairy story like that? If I’m a judge of diamonds—and I rather guess I am—that there ring must be worth a hundred dollars if it’s worth a penny. Do you suppose for a minute that a first-grade[Pg 42] carrier could save that much out of a six-hundred-a-year salary?
“And, besides,” he continued, “I’ll tell you somethin’ that ought to convince you. There’s several men employed at Station X Y who can testify that yesterday morning Sheridan was going among ’em tryin’ to borrow thirty dollars. Would he have done that if he had a hundred dollars saved up?”
Dallas gazed at him in horror, unable to find words to refute this argument.
“Now, when did Sheridan give you that ring?” Hines inquired.
“Only last night,” she answered simply.
The politician smiled triumphantly. “Well, there you are! It’s as clear as daylight. We can prove that he was tryin’ to borrow money from his comrades yesterday at the post office; yesterday evenin’ he was so flush he could afford to buy a hundred-dollar ring. Where did he get the money? By pawnin’ the watch he stole, of course. What more proof could you want?”
“But forty dollars wouldn’t buy a ring like this,” declared Dallas hopefully. “If the watch was pawned for only that much, where did he get the rest of the money?”