"
"Were you previously acquainted with Luke?"
"I was not."
"Was it not rather a singular proceeding to commit what is
presumably of considerable value to an unknown boy?"
"It would generally be considered so, but I do many strange things.
I had seen the boy by daylight, though he had never seen me,
and I was sure I could trust him."
"Why, if you desired a place of safe-keeping for your box,
did you not select the bank vaults?"
Roland Reed laughed, and glanced at the presiding justice.
"It might have been stolen," he said.
"Does the box contain documents of value?"
"The contents are valuable to me, at any rate."
"Mr. Beane," said Squire Duncan, irritably, "I think you
are treating the witness too indulgently. I believe this
box to be the one taken from the bank."
"You heard the remark of the justice," said the lawyer.
"Is this the box taken from the bank?"
"It is not," answered the witness, contemptuously, "and no
one knows this better than Mr. Duncan."
The justice flushed angrily.
"You are impertinent, witness," he said. "It is all very well to
claim this box as yours, but I shall require you to prove ownership.
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