Page:Harry Castlemon - The Steel Horse.djvu/173

 mainland?" said Willis anxiously. "If he did, then they have all gone to their death."

"How could he have bribed anybody when he had no money?" cried Mrs. Moffatt.

"Madam," replied the superintendent impressively, "he had money, and plenty of it, too."

"When and how did he get it?"

"You tell. All I know is, that every dollar of the funds the colonel left in my hands to pay expenses during his absence has disappeared."

"I don't care if it is," snapped the housekeeper. "Rowe Shelly never took it. He isn't capable of such a thing."

To an inexperienced rascal it would have seemed as though the situation was about as bad as it could be, and even Willis trembled when he tried to look far enough into the future to see what the outcome was likely to be. But, as it happened, he was saved from the consequences of his folly and wickedness (for the present, at least), by one of those unexpected freaks of fortune that sometimes happen in this world. He did not want to talk about the stolen money, especially to a person