“I—er—I er——” the deacon hesitated. He could not positively state which of the twain it was. He had seen no face, and the room was not well lighted.
“It wasn’t only money that was taken, was it, Deacon?” asked Joe, for he was now ready to take a hand in the proceedings.
“No. It was securities—papers that you two alone knew the value of,” said the deacon, quickly. “You took the investment papers, Denton and Harrison, I’m sure you did!”
Harrison laughed.
“You’ll have to have some better proof than just being sure we did it,” he said. “That won’t go in law. Now you’d better take these ornaments off us, and let us go,” he ordered Hen Sylvester. “You haven’t a single bit of evidence against us, and if you persist in arresting us we’ll sue for false imprisonment. You haven’t a bit of evidence!”
“Haven’t we? What’s this?” cried Joe Strong, suddenly.
With a quick motion, he drew from an inner pocket of Burke Denton’s coat a folded bond paper. At the sight of it Denton’s jaw dropped, and even Harrison’s eyes opened wide in astonishment.
“There’s one of the stolen securities now in your possession,” said Joe calmly. “Isn’t that evidence enough?”
“How—how did that get in my pocket?” asked Denton. “I thought you had ’em all, Harrison. I told you not to be so careless with ’em, and now——”
“Keep still, can’t you!” fairly yelled the other. “Do you want to put us in——”