“Garlick told me about that. It seems that Alonzo and Matthew laid it to Wade; but the peaches were found on your son and mine.” “I declare. I don’t believe my boy would steal peaches, or any thing else,” persisted the mother of the hopeful son. “But we know that Wade Brooks will steal, for husband had two hundred dollars in the house, and he stole it this very night,” continued Matt’s mother. “Wade stole it! Are you sure of that?” asked the captain. “The money is gone, and so is Wade.” “And so is Matthew,” added Capt. Trustleton. “You don’t mean to say that you think my son stole the money?” demanded the mother of Matt indignantly. “I think it more likely than that Wade Brooks stole it,” replied the captain. “This is a bad scrape for the boys, and it may cost them some years in the penitentiary. I do not know that money will save them. If it will, it will cost us about a thousand dollars apiece.” Farmer Swikes groaned in anguish at the prospect. “I am afraid the stealing of the money only shows that the boys are guilty, and intend to clear out to avoid the penalty of the crime. The money was stolen to pay the expenses of the journey. Perhaps I shall find that my boy has robbed me of some money. We had better look these things fairly in the face, and provide for the worst. I will see you again in the morning.” Capt. Trustleton departed for his elegant house; and he would have given the whole of it to have his son out of this scrape. The Swikeses had enough to keep them awake that night. CHAPTER V. HOW IT WAS DONE. Mrs. Swikes hardly closed her eyes on the night of the fire; and half a dozen times before morning she went to Matt’s room to see whether he had returned or not. He was not seen again that night. When Capt. Trustleton reached his magnificent house, he went to the chamber of Alonzo to see if he was there. The room was without its occupant, though it was eleven o’clock. The bed was not tumbled, and the son had not been into it. The captain was a widower; so that there was no mother in this beautiful home to worry over the departure of a son, and to grieve over his error. But where were Lon and Matt? The son of the rich man had threatened Mr. Garlick, and declared that he would “get even with him.” It now appeared that he had done so. Possibly Garlick believed by this time that it did not pay to protect his own property in just the way he had done it, though his barn and the stock it contained were fully insured. He had an idea that those boys would spend a long term in prison. He was not sure that the boys had set the fire, and perhaps he could not prove it; but he was very well satisfied in his own mind, and so were his two hired men.