"It's the last thing I'd be willing to do, Mr. Perkins,"
said Luke, promptly. "Then everybody would decide that
I was guilty. I am innocent, and want a chance to prove it."
What was to be done with the tin box, was the next question.
"I will take it over to my house," said Squire Duncan.
"I object," said Mr. Beane.
"Do you doubt my integrity?" demanded the bank president, angrily.
"No; but it is obviously improper that any one of us should
take charge of the box before it has been opened and its
contents examined. We are not even certain that it is the one
missing from the bank."
As Mr. Beane was a lawyer, Prince Duncan, though unwillingly,
was obliged to yield. The box, therefore, was taken to
the bank and locked up in the safe till wanted.
It is hardly necessary to say that the events at the cottage
of Mrs. Larkin, and Luke's arrest, made a great sensation in
the village. The charge that Luke had robbed the bank was
received not only with surprise, but with incredulity. The boy
was so well and so favorably known in Groveton that few could be
found to credit the charge. There were exceptions, however.
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