The Corner House Girls' Odd Find Part 28

"I-I didn't know what was in it. I couldn't believe it!" declared Ruth, with clasped hands.

"For pity's sake! what _is_ the matter with you, Ruth Kenway?" cried Agnes, feeling that they were all at cross purposes. "If it was real money or counterfeit, either one, of course Neale was to be trusted with it, I should hope."

"_If!_" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Ruth, desperately. "You don't know what you say, Agnes. There's no 'if' about it. It is real money."

"No?" gasped the astounded Agnes, who had never really believed this was so. "How do you know that, Ruth Kenway? It is preposterous."

"It is so," repeated Ruth, more calmly. "I took one of the ten dollar bills and had it examined at the bank. Mr. Crouch says it is good money.

I didn't believe it myself till he said so. Then I came back to find the book and lock it away somewhere. And you had given it to Neale."

"Oh, Neale!" gasped Agnes, sitting down suddenly.

"Well! what if I did have it? And what if it is good money?" repeated the white-haired boy, still standing as though on the defensive. "Do you think I'd run away with it, Ruth Kenway?"

"You _did_ go away with it, didn't you?" returned Ruth, a little sharp herself, now. "I have been worried to death."

"But of course it's all right," Agnes hastened to put in, trying to throw oil on the troubled waters. "You brought the old alb.u.m back with you, didn't you, Neale?"

"Yes, I did," Neale admitted. "But I'd like to know what Ruth means by what she says. If there _had_ been a hundred thousand dollars in that book do you s'pose I'd _steal_ it?"

"A hundred thousand dollars!" murmured Agnes. "Oh-dear-me!"

"I didn't know what to think," Ruth said slowly. "I have worried-oh! so much!" and she sobbed.

"Because I carried away that old book?" repeated Neale.

"Yes. Oh! it would have been just the same if anybody had carried it off. I don't know who all that fortune belongs to; but we must take care of it till Mr. Howbridge comes."

"Oh, my goodness me!" squealed Agnes. "Is it true? Can it be so?

All-that-money?"

"I'm sure it isn't ours," Ruth said quietly. "Uncle Peter never hid away any such sum. He wasn't as rich as all that. But we've got to give an account of it to somebody."

"What for?" demanded her sister. "I found it."

"But findings isn't always keepings, Aggie-especially where so much money is concerned. A hundred thousand dollars!"

"A hundred thousand dollars!" repeated Agnes, in the same awed tone.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "You think I'm a thief. I won't stay here."]

Neale pulled his cap tighter down over his ears. It was an angry gesture.

"Where are you going, Neale?" demanded Ruth, exasperated. "Do sit down and tell us what you have done. Don't you see we are anxious? I never saw such a boy! Do tell us!"

"I don't know why I should tell you anything," returned the boy, grumpily enough. "You think I'm a thief. I won't stay here."

"Oh, Neale!" shrieked Agnes, seeing how serious this difference was.

"Don't get mad."

"Let him return the book," said Ruth, insistently. "This isn't any foolish matter, I a.s.sure you. He has no right to keep it."

"Did I say I was going to keep it?" flared out Neale O'Neil.

"Well, you have kept it. You carried it away to Tiverton, you say," went on Ruth, accusingly.

"Well, so I did," admitted Neale.

"What for, I'd like to know?" demanded the oldest Corner House girl in exasperation.

"I lugged it along to show to somebody."

"What for-if you didn't think it was good money?"

"Oh, Ruth!" begged Agnes again. "Don't!"

"I want him to answer," cried her elder sister, severely. "Why did he carry the alb.u.m away? And where is it now?"

It must be confessed that Ruth Kenway had worked herself into a fever of excitement. It was the result of the repressed anxiety she had so long endured regarding this strange and wonderful find of Agnes' in the old Corner House garret.

Neale was very pale now. He was usually slow to anger, and his friends, the Corner House girls, had never seen him moved so deeply before.

"I did think the bonds might be worth something," Neale said, at last, and hoa.r.s.ely. "I told Aggie so."

"But the money?" cried Ruth.

"_You_ say it's good," the boy returned. "You can believe that's so if you want to. I didn't think it was when I took the book."

"I tell you Mr. Crouch, at the bank, said it was perfectly good. See here!" cried Ruth, desperately.

She ran for her purse that lay on the sewing-machine table. She opened it and drew forth the folded ten dollar bill. With it came the other bill she had put away.

"I showed him this!" Ruth began, when Agnes stooped to pick up the other.

"What's this?" the second sister asked.

"Why-why that's the one Mr. Howbridge gave me. I haven't needed to break it."

"And you had 'em both together?" demanded Agnes, shrewdly.

"Yes."

"Which one did you show Mr. Crouch then?"

The question stunned Ruth for the moment. She unfolded the bill she had taken out of the purse. It was quite a new silver certificate. Agnes unfolded the other. It was an old-style United States banknote, dated long before the girls' parents were born.

Neale, as well as the Kenway sisters, saw the significance of the discovery. The boy turned his face aside quickly and so hid the smile that automatically wreathed his lips.

"Why-why!" gasped Agnes, "if you showed Mr. Crouch _that_ bill, of course he said it was a good one. But how about this?"