"I'm afraid there may be something wrong with the money. I'm going to find it out before he does, if there is." There was a little padlock on the trunk, but it was tied together with a bit of leather shoestring, not locked. Jerome took out his jack-knife, cut the string, and opened the trunk. Elmira held the candle while he examined the contents. There was a large old wallet stuffed with bank-notes, also several parcels of them tied up carefully. "It's just as I thought," Jerome muttered. "What?" "Some of the money is gone. The gold isn't here. It might have been the man who roomed with him at Hayes's Tavern. There have been queer things done there before now. All I wonder is, he didn't take it all." "Oh, Jerome, it isn't gone?" "Yes, the gold is gone. Here is the bag it was in. The thief left that. Suppose he thought he might be traced by it." "Oh, poor father, poor father, what will he do!" moaned Elmira. "He'll do nothing. He'll never know it," said Jerome. "What do you mean?" "Wait here a minute." Jerome went noiselessly out of the room and up-stairs. He returned soon with a leathern bag, which he carried with great caution. "I'm trying to keep this from jingling," he whispered. "Oh, Jerome, what is it?" Jerome laughed and untied the mouth of the bag. "You must help me put it into the other bag; every dollar will have to be counted out separately." "Oh, Jerome, is it money you've saved?" "Yes; and don't you ever tell of it to either of them, or anybody else, as long as you live. I guess poor father sha'n't know he's lost any of his money he's worked so hard to get, if I can help it." Chapter XXXV A stranger passing Abel Edwards's house the day after his return might have gotten the impression that one of the functions of village life--a wedding or a funeral--was going on there. From morning until late at night the people came down the road, wading through the snow, the men with trousers tucked into boots, the women with yarn-stockings over their shoes, their arms akimbo, pinning their kilted petticoats to their hips. Many drove there in sleighs, tilting to the drifts. The Edwards's door-yard was crowded with teams.