“I take you to witness, Gerald,” said Wentworth, “this is my pocketbook, which this man Amsden stole from me last night. I’ll keep it.”
“Stop there, gemmen!” said Pete Johnson. “Dat don’t go down. Dat wallet belongs to Jake, I’ve seen him have it a dozen times. I won’t ’low no stealin’ in my saloon.”
“Be careful, Mr. Johnson,” said Wentworth sternly. “There are papers in this wallet that prove my ownership. You evidently intended to relieve Jake of the wallet when he was sleeping off the effects of the whisky. If you make a fuss I’ll have you arrested as a confederate of Jake Amsden in the robbing.”
“’Fore Hebbin, massa!” said Peter, becoming alarmed, “I didn’t know Jake stole the money.”
“Did you ever know him have so much money before?” demanded Gerald.
“Didn’t know but he might a had some money lef’ him,” said Peter shrewdly.
“Well, you know now. When this gentleman lay asleep in our cabin last night Jake stole in and took his wallet.”
“What’ll I do, gemmen? When Jake wakes up” (he had dropped on the floor, where he was breathing hard with his eyes closed) “he’ll ’cuse me of takin’ his money.”
“Tell him that the man he stole it from came here and got it,” said Gerald.
Gerald and his companion left the saloon, leaving Peter Johnson quite down in the mouth. His little game had been spoiled, for rightly supposing that Jake did not know how much money there was in the wallet, he had intended to abstract at least half the contents and appropriate it to his own use.
“Did he use much of your money, Mr. Wentworth?” asked Gerald.
“I will examine and find out,” answered his companion.
He sat down under the tree and took out the roll of bills.
“Only five dollars are missing,” he said in a tone of satisfaction.
“Have you a son?” asked Gerald. “I think I heard my father say you had one somewhere near my own age.”
“My son—Victor—is seventeen. You have one advantage over him.”
“Money is a temptation,” returned Bradley Wentworth slowly, “especially to a boy. Victor knows that I am rich—that is, moderately rich,” he added cautiously, “and he feels at liberty to spend money, often in ways that don’t do him any good. He buys clothes extravagantly, but that does no harm outside of the expense. I am sorry to say that he has contracted a taste for drink, and has given several champagne suppers to his friends. I suppose you don’t indulge yourself in that way,” Wentworth added, with a faint smile.