"I lost a sum of money," she said,--"a hundred and twenty dollars."
"But that was not all. There was besides a--a document of importance, for which I cared more than the money."
"What it was is quite immaterial," said Mrs. Oakley. "It is sufficient to say that it was a document of very great importance. I care little for the money compared with that. If you took it, Ben," she said, with a sudden final appeal, "I will forgive you, and let you keep the money, if you will restore the--the document."
There was a look of entreaty in the proud woman's eyes, as she made this appeal to her son. She waited anxiously for the answer.
But the inducement was not sufficient. The one hundred and twenty dollars were already paid away, and Ben owed one hundred and eighty dollars besides. He knew that Winchester would not remit the debt. There was no chance whatever of that. So Ben determined to keep the _rôle_ of injured innocence which he had assumed in the beginning. His mother would not be able to find him out. It may be thought that this was inconsistent with his plan of raising money out of his mother's fears by withholding the will. But he had arranged that already. _He might find the will_,--perhaps in Hannah's chamber, perhaps elsewhere, he could decide that hereafter; but he resolved not to own up to the theft. In fact, after denying it stoutly, it would have been difficult to do that.
"Look here, mother," he said, "I am not a thief, and I wish you would not try to make me out one. You're ready enough to suspect me. Why don't you suspect Hannah? She was here all the time."
"I have already spoken to Hannah," said Mrs. Oakley.
"She said she had not been upstairs during my absence."
"And you believed her," said Ben, reproachfully. "Do you believe her before me?"
"Yes, I believed her," said Mrs. Oakley; "and I will tell you why. She might take the money, but she wouldn't be likely to take the paper."
"I don't know about that. She might think it was of importance. She might think you would pay her money to get it back."
Just then it flashed across Mrs. Oakley's mind that Hannah had seen the will in her hand on the day that she undertook to burn it. Why had she not thought of that before? It might be that Hannah was more artful than she gave her credit for, and, suspecting the value of the document, had taken it as well as the money.