"I did!" he said.
"A likely story! You were in bed and asleep."
"You are mistaken. I was on watch behind
the stone wall just opposite. If you want
proof, I can repeat some of the conversation
that passed between you and Mr. Gibbon."
Without waiting for the request, Carl rehearsed
some of the talk already recorded in a previous chapter.
Phil Stark began to see that things were getting serious
for him, but he was game to the last.
"I deny it," he said, in a loud voice.
"Do you also deny it, Mr. Gibbon?" asked Mr. Jennings.
"No, sir; I admit it," replied Gibbon, with
a triumphant glance at his foiled confederate.
"This is a conspiracy against an innocent man,"
said Stark, scowling. "You want to screen
your bookkeeper, if possible. No one has
ever before charged me with crime."
"Then how does it happen, Mr. Stark, that
you were confined at the Joliet penitentiary
for a term of years?"
"Did he tell you this?" snarled Stark,
pointing to Gibbon.
"No."
"Who then?"
"A customer of mine from Chicago. He saw
you at the hotel, and informed Carl last evening
of your character. Carl, of course, brought
the news to me. It was in consequence of this
information that I myself removed the bonds
from the box, early in the evening, and
substituted strips of paper. Your enterprise,
therefore, would have availed you little even
if you had succeeded in getting off scot-free."
"I see the game is up," said Stark,
throwing off the mask. "It's true that I have been
in the Joliet penitentiary.
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