“I didn’t dream of it,” said the restaurant keeper.
“I did. I suspected him as soon as you told me he was trying to fasten suspicion upon Grant Colburn.”
“You don’t think the boy had anything to do with the theft?”
“I feel sure of it. The boy is an honest boy. You have only to look in his face to see that. I haven’t been a detective for nothing. I may be mistaken at times, but I can generally judge a man or boy by his face.”
“No. I wasn’t going to give myself away. By the way, he had quite a stroke of luck tonight.”
“Yes. At one time he was a winner of nearly or quite five hundred dollars.”
“Then he will be able to make up to me the amount he has taken.”
“Don’t flatter yourself! I said he was a winner of that amount at one time. I didn’t say he went out with that sum. As a matter of fact, he lost it all, and left the place probably without a dollar.”
“Then,” he said, “I shan’t get my money back.”
“He must have taken hundreds of dollars.”
“The villain!” exclaimed the restaurant keeper. “And I have paid him so liberally, too!”
“Well, Smithson, it might have been worse. I suspect you have a pretty tidy sum laid by.”
Smithson’s face changed, and he looked complacent.
“Yes, Vincent,” he said. “I’m worth a little money.”
“Good! Look upon this as a little set-back that won’t materially affect you, and put it down to the account of profit and loss.”
“Very, good! I will do so. But to-morrow I will give Mr. Benton his walking ticket.”
Albert Benton came to work as usual in the morning. His employer came in half an hour late. By this time the waiter had become resigned to his disappointment of the night previous. He recognized his folly in not making sure of the large sum he had at one time won, and determined to act more wisely in future.
Presently, when he chanced to be unemployed, Smithson beckoned to him.
“Benton,” he said, “you remember my speaking to you about missing money from the till?”
“Yes, sir; but I thought you decided that it was only a falling off in receipts.”
“Yes, I said that; but it seems to me that the deficiency is too great to be accounted for in that way.”
“You may be right, sir. You remember what I told you about the boy?”
“How am I to find out the truth of the matter?”
“I would suggest that you have the boy searched. I feel sure that you will find that he has a considerable sum of money in his pocket.”