DAN and Mr. Harrison found quite a crowd gathered about Hank’s store. Some were inside, where they gazed in open-mouthed wonder at the broken window, and looked at the cigar case, stripped of most of its contents.
Hank was kept so busy answering questions, and telling over again, for perhaps the twentieth time, the story of how he had discovered the robbery, that he could not wait on customers.
“Soon’s as I see them cigars gone, I knowed I’d been robbed,” said Hank.
“May I have a few words with you?” inquired Mr. Harrison, entering with Dan, and interrupting the storekeeper’s recital.
“What about?” asked Hank, in no friendly tone of voice.
“About this robbery.”
“Wa’al, I’ve told all I know. I was jest tellin’ Mrs. Spriggs here about it, and if ye want to listen I s’pose there ain’t no law against it.”
“That’s the trouble, you’ve been talking too much about this case,” said the old soldier sternly. He was a man who went straight to the point.
“Too much? What d’ ye mean? Guess I’ve got a right to say what I please about my own affairs.”
“You have, about your own business, but not about that of any one else.”
“What d’ ye mean?”
It was plain to see that Mr. Lee was uneasy. Those in the store crowded up closer to hear the conversation between him and the former blacksmith.
“I mean you have practically accused Dan Hardy of robbing your store.”
“I didn’t say he really done it.”
“Do you deny you said he ought to be arrested, and that he could tell something about it if he wanted to?”
“Wa’al, s’posin’ I did say so?”
“You have no right to say so. It is a scandal, and you are liable to damages for it.”
“Not if it’s the truth!”
“Then you still maintain that he robbed your store? Be careful of what you say!”
“I don’t say he done it. What I did say, an’ I say it ag’in, is that a fellow that robbed one place will rob another.”
“How do you know he robbed one place?”
“Wasn’t he found guilty of robbing the doctor’s house?”
“No, and you know he was not. At the very worst there is only a suspicion against him, and a wicked and unjust suspicion it is.”
“Wa’al, I don’t say Dan robbed my store, but I’ve got my suspicions that he might know suthin’ of the gang that did.”
“That’s not so!” exclaimed Dan hotly, unable to control himself any longer.
“Easy, Dan,” counseled Mr. Harrison in a low voice. Then addressing the storekeeper he went on: “Now I want to warn you, Mr. Lee. I heard the rumors you were circulating about Dan, and if I hear any more I shall take legal means to stop you. I am not the poor blacksmith I was, and I’ll spend considerable money to bring you to court, to answer for it, if you spread any more scandal about this boy. I should think you’d be ashamed of yourself to harm one who never injured you!”
“He set a bull after me once,” muttered Mr. Lee.
But the mention of the bull, and the memory of what had happened, set the crowd to laughing.
“There is no need of going into that old story now,” went on Mr. Harrison. “I have given you fair warning. You can talk about the robbery as much as you please, but any reference to Dan Hardy, as one of the robbers, must not be made.”
“No, it ain’t right,” put in Constable Wolff, coming into the store at that moment.
“Got any new evidence?” asked a man in the crowd.
“Some, yep. I jest come back from talkin’ t’ Dr. Maxwell. He says both th’ burglars was grown men, so that let’s Dan out. I knowed he didn’t have any hand in this, an’ I’ve got my s’picions that maybe he didn’t rob th’ doctor’s house.”
“Thank you,” said Dan sincerely.
“Yep, I’m inclined t’ think it was th’ same gang that done Hank out of his money,” the constable went on. “I’ve got some clues t’ work on now.”
“I think you ought to beg Dan’s pardon for what you have said,” went on Mr. Harrison, turning to the storekeeper again. “It is very unjust to him, and you may yet have to answer for it.”
The old soldier looked sturdy standing there, with Dan by his side, and the fact that he had plenty of money to go to law with if he chose, rather made Mr. Lee worry.
“Wa’al,” he said, “mebby I was a bit hasty sayin’ Dan might know suthin’ about it. I s’pose he don’t.”
“Indeed I don’t,” replied Dan earnestly.
“Wa’al, I’ll not mention it any more,” and that was about as much as could be expected from a man like Hank Lee. Even this partial apology came hard for him, and Mr. Harrison was satisfied.
“While we’re here we might as well take a look at where the burglars got in,” said the former blacksmith to Dan, as the storekeeper resumed his telling of the tale for the twentieth time.
They went to the rear of the store, which was pretty well deserted by this time, nearly all of the crowd having gazed as long as they wanted to at the broken window.
Mr. Harrison and Dan went to the casement, the sash of which had been shattered.
“They must have used some powerful instrument,” spoke the old soldier.
“Yes, there are the marks of it on the window sill,” added Dan, pointing to some deep indentations.
Mr. Harrison stepped back. As he did so his foot hit against something that gave out a ringing sound, like a piece of iron when it is struck. He looked down, and saw something shiny amid a small pile of waste papers. He picked it up, and, as he did so he uttered a low murmur of astonishment.
“What is it?” asked Dan.
“It is the instrument I once mended for that mysterious stranger who was in town some months ago! The man who was talking to you. I recognize this tool by the way it is welded together. It is my work. I wonder how it came here?”
“What’s that ye got?” asked a voice from behind the former blacksmith, and the two turned around to see Constable Wolff looking over their shoulders at the queer find.
“I just picked it up on the floor,” replied Mr. Harrison. “What is it?”
“What is it?” repeated the constable in an excited voice. “What is it? Why it’s what I’ve been looking for! It’s a burglar’s tool—a jimmy they call ’em! It’s what they used t’ pry open winders with. That’s th’ best clue yet!”
Mr. Harrison looked at Dan in a significant manner, and, when the constables turned aside for a moment, the old soldier placed his finger across his lips, to warn the lad to say nothing.
“Look a-here!” exclaimed the constable, unable to keep the news of the find to himself. “Here’s th’ jimmy th’ burglars used. They dropped it right under th’ winder!”