Allis remembered that she had seen Mortimer on the race course.
“Mr. Mortimer doesn't bet,” she said.
“Yes, he does; he did yesterday, anyway; and when he saw that I knew about it, he begged me to say nothing—practically admitted that he had taken the money, and was going to put it back.”
“Why should he tell you that, Alan?”
“I don't know, unless he feared it might be found out while he was away; or, perhaps he was so excited over winning a thousand dollars that he didn't know what he was saying. At any rate, he took it right enough, Allis, and you ought to cut him.”
“I shan't do that. He's innocent, I know he is—I don't care what they say. If he replaced the money, it was to shield the man who took it.” She was looking searchingly into her brother's eyes—not that she was accusing him of the theft, she was just searching for the truth.
“Do you mean it was to shield me—that I took it? No one could have taken the money except Mortimer or myself.”
“I don't know,” answered the girl, wearily; “it's all so terribly new; I only know that Mortimer did not steal it.”
While she was still speaking, the accused man came from the cashier's office, holding his head as erect as an Indian, not at all as a half-convicted felon should have slunk through the door; yet withal in his face was a look of troubled gravity.
When Mortimer saw Allis his face flushed, then went pale in an instant. He felt that she knew; he had seen her talking earnestly to her brother. Probably she, too, would think him a thief. He admitted to himself that the evidence was sufficient to destroy anyone's faith in his innocence, and he was helpless, quite helpless; he was limited to simple denial, unless he accused her brother; even had he been so disposed, there was nothing to back up a denunciation of the boy. He felt a twinge of pain over Alan's ingratitude; the latter must know that he had put his neck in a noose to save him. Now that one of them needs be dishonored, why did not Alan prove himself a man, a Porter—they were a hero breed—and accept the gage of equity. Even worse, Alan was shielding himself behind this terrible bulwark of circumstantial evidence which topped him, the innocent one, on every side.