Page:The achievements of Luther Trant - Balmer and MacHarg - 1910.djvu/161

Rh "Isn't young Gordon out there now, Mr. Howell?" Trant turned to the wondering banker quickly. "Thank you! Gordon," he said to the cashier's son who came in, reluctantly, "I have just been questioning Ford, as perhaps you may guess, as to why you and he have gone to so much trouble to learn the combination of the safe. He declares that it was not with an intention to rob. However, I think, Mr. Howell," Trant swung away from the boy to the young banker, suggestively, "that if we turn Ford over to the police—"

"No, you shan't!" the boy burst in. "He wasn't going to rob the safe! And you shan't arrest him or disgrace him as you disgraced me! For he was only—only—"

"Only getting the combination for you?" Trant put in quickly, "so you could rob the bank yourself!"

"Rob the bank?" the boy shouted, less in control of himself than before as he faced Howell with clenched fists and flushed face. "Rob nothing! He was only helping me so I could take back from this — — bank what it stole from my father—the ten thousand dollars it stole from him, for the money I never lost. I was going to take ten thousand dollars—not a cent more or less! And Ford knew it, and thought I was right!"

Trant interrupted, quietly: "I am sure you are telling the truth, Gordon!"

"You mean you are sure they meant only to take the ten thousand?" the banker asked, dazed.