Again did Andy allow his person to be gone over, though he was so weak from fear that he would have fallen had not Hugh put an arm about his shoulders. It was the contact with the scout master that held Andy up in that minute of anguish. In such a time the personal touch of a friend’s hand is worth more than can be reckoned in money; for it gives confidence, and announces that not quite all the world has turned against the unfortunate one.
Old Major Anson did his part of the business thoroughly. He examined every pocket, and even ran his hand over the lining of the boy’s khaki coat as though he suspected some secret hiding-place.
When he had completed his task the veteran nodded to Hugh, and made a salute as one officer might to another.
“There is nothing in the way of money on his person, sir,” he reported.
The crowd had waited eagerly, and seemed to anticipate further thrilling disclosures. To most of those who looked on, it was pretty much in the way of a source of amusement; some of them were hoping the wad of stolen bills would be found. It mattered little to them that a boy’s heart was perilously near the breaking point; he was only a boy, and they also remembered that he had once been a rogue under the tutelage of Lige Corbley.
“But don’t you see,” said the owner of the empty pocketbook, “he must have handed the money over to a confederate. These slick rascals always hunt in pairs, I’m told. Just as soon as he got my property he slipped the bills out and passed them onto some one who walked away while we were making all that row.”
“Sounds kind of reasonable to me!” said one man, frowning at the shivering Andy, against whom he may have had a spite of long standing.
“Look up at me, Andy!” said Hugh, sternly, and the boy obeyed quickly, with an expression on his pallid face that Hugh somehow could only compare to the look of a hunted deer that finds its escape cut off, and the savage wolves closing in on all sides.
“What is it, Hugh?” he asked, piteously, wringing his hands as he spoke.
“You still tell me on your word of honor as a scout that you never touched that pocketbook, and never saw it before, do you?”