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What I want to know is, did it drop out when I took off my coat here in the shop? Do you get that through your head, finally?"It had gotten through.Jed now looked as troubled as his friend.

He rose hastily and went over to the pile of boards upon which Captain Sam had thrown his coat upon entering the shop on his previous visit that day.Together they searched, painstakingly and at length.The captain was the first to give up.

"'Tain't here," he snapped."I didn't think 'twas.Where in time is it? That's what I want to know."Jed rubbed his chin.

"Are you sure you had it when you left Wapatomac?" he asked.

"Sure? No, I ain't sure of anything.But I'd have sworn I did.

The money was on the table along with my hat and gloves.I picked it up and shoved it in my overcoat pocket.And that was a darned careless place to put it, too," he added, testily."I'd have given any feller that worked for me the devil for doin' such a thing."Jed nodded, sympathetically."But you might have left it there to Sylvester's," he said."Have you thought of telephonin' to find out?""Have I thought? Tut, tut, tut! Do you think I've got a head like a six-year-old young-one--or you? Course I've thought--and 'phoned, too.But it didn't do me any good.Sylvester's house is shut up and the old man's gone to Boston, so the postmaster told me when I 'phoned and asked him.Won't be back for a couple of days, anyhow.I remember he told me he was goin'!""Sho, sho! that's too bad."

"Bad enough, but I don't think it makes any real difference.Iswear I had that money when I left Sage's.I came in here and then I went straight to the bank.""And after you got there?"

"Oh, when I got there I found no less than three men, not countin'

old Mrs.Emmeline Bartlett, in my room waitin' to see me.Nellie Hall--my typewriter, you know--she knew where I'd been and what a crank old Sage is and she says: 'Did you get the money, Cap'n?'

And I says: 'Yes, it's in my overcoat pocket this minute.' Then Ihurried in to 'tend to the folks that was waitin' for me.'Twas an hour later afore I went to my coat to get the cash.Then, as Isay, all I could find was the two five hundred packages.The four hundred one was gone.""Sho, sho! Tut, tut, tut! Where did you put the coat when you took it off?""On the hook in the clothes closet where I always put it.""Hum-m! And--er--when you told Nellie about it did you speak loud?""Loud? No louder'n I ever do."

"Well--er--that ain't a--er--whisper, Sam, exactly.""Don't make any difference.There wasn't anybody outside the railin' that minute to hear if I'd bellered like a bull of Bashan.

There was nobody in the bank, I tell you, except the three men and old Aunt Emmeline and they were waitin' in my private room.And except for Nellie and Eddie Ellis, the messenger, and Charlie Phillips, there wan't a soul around, as it happened.The money hasn't been stolen; I lost it somewheres--but where? Well, I can't stop here any longer.I'm goin' back to the bank to have another hunt."He banged out again.Fortunately he did not look at his friend's face before he went.For that face had a singular expression upon it.Jed sat heavily down in the chair by the bench.A vivid recollection of a recent remark made in that very shop had suddenly come to him.Charlie Phillips had made it in answer to a question of his own.Charlie had declared that he would do almost anything to get five hundred dollars.