"I did not tell him, but I think he did. He must have stolen it."
"Don't be alarmed, sir. I don't think you will lose it," I added.
"It is gone already, and I shall never see it again."
"Perhaps you will, sir."
"No, never! The men in this house are all villains," said he, bitterly, as he dropped into a chair, apparently from sheer exhaustion, and in utter despair.
"No, sir; I happen to know that the eyes of a detective were upon him at the very moment when he left the room above. I have no doubt he has been arrested by this time."
"Detective?"
"Yes, sir;" and I gave a brief account of the manner in which Lynch had swindled me, and stated the purpose for which I had returned to the house.
"But I shall be exposed!" exclaimed Mr. Gracewood, bitterly. "I would rather lose my money than have my wife and children know that I have been gambling, and that I frequent such places as this. I wrote them a miserable lie—that I was obliged to go to Memphis—to explain my absence. If God will forgive and spare me this time, never will I be guilty again!"
"Calm yourself, sir. I am sorry you have done wrong; but seeing and repenting the wrong half undoes it—so your brother taught me."