"Your words sound all right, boy," he finally remarked coldly, "but I am not so easily deceived. You want time to cover up your tracks. Perhaps you even hope I may invite you and your rowdy companions to my house, and that the occasion will allow you to satisfy your vulgar curiosity to the bent."
These cruel words struck the boys severely. Bluff was heard to mutter half under his breath, while Jerry frowned and bit his lip as though he found it very hard to keep from telling Aaron Dennison what he thought of him.
Frank himself had to hold back the angry words that tried to escape his lips; the insult was so uncalled for, so unjust, he thought.
"Of course, sir, if you have that sort of opinion of all boys," he went on to say, deliberately, and with considerable dignity for a mere lad, "you wouldn't want us bothering around. I only meant to show you how ready we are to lend a hand. I am sure that if the cup you speak of wasn't simply mislaid it must have been taken by some one belonging to your own household, and may be returned again."
The angry man chose to see some hidden meaning back of Frank's words, which were after all only natural, considering the circumstances.
"There, straws show which way the wind blows!" he exclaimed, turning toward the constable; "and you can see, Mr. Jeems, how these boys have been talking over my private affairs among themselves. They are really consumed by a curiosity to know about matters that do not concern them; and in prowling around my place have perhaps been tempted to take things that did not belong to them."
"But Mr. Dennison, if this prize gold cup was so precious why did you leave it around so that it could be easily taken?" asked Will, suddenly, as though this idea had struck him as strange.
"Because in the first place," replied the old man, "I was fool enough to believe my people were as honest as the day was long; and the thought that any outsider would ever try to enter my house never came to me until lately. In fact, it was after meeting you boys in my grounds that I began to feel uneasy, since I saw it would be possible for a robbery to occur, once desperate men conceived the plan to break in."
"And even then you did not put the golden cup away in some place of security—you continued to leave it out where servants and others could reach it, did you, sir?" Frank continued, with something of a lawyer's skill at cross questioning.
"It was beginning to worry me," confessed the old man, frowning. "I found myself wishing my nephew would hasten his return, and take possession of his prized cup. Then last night I had a bad dream in which it seemed to me that thieves entered my house, and among other things took away Gilbert's loving cup."