The look of joyous relief which had come to Owen’s face immediately disappeared. "Well, go on, Pop," he said, in a discouraged tone. "Well, sir, the young lady pleaded so hard that finally, like a weak old fool, I consented to do her the favor. It wasn’t until she began to cry that I gave in; I can’t bear to see a woman in tears, and I didn’t dream for a minute, of course, that there was goin’ to be all this trouble about that letter afterward; so I told her I’d take a chance and let her have it." "And when you handed her the pink envelope, you noticed, of course, the address which was on it," said Owen, clutching at straws. "Are you quite sure, Pop, that it was addressed to a person in Pennsylvania--the same person to whom the clergyman’s missing letter was addressed?" He asked the question fearfully, realizing that Dallas’ fate depended upon what answer the old carrier made. If Pop Andrews answered in the affirmative, then there could be no doubt, of course, that the letter which Dallas had asked for and received was the letter which contained the clergyman’s hundred-dollar bill. But the veteran shook his head. "No, I couldn’t swear to that, Owen; I couldn’t tell you whether it was addressed to the same party or not, because I didn’t see the address side at all." "You didn’t see it?" exclaimed Owen incredulously. "You mean to say that you handed her the letter without even looking at it, Pop?" An exclamation of astonishment came from Superintendent Henderson. He, too, looked at the old man incredulously. Pop Andrews’ air was sheepish. "I must admit that I’m all kinds of a careless fool," he said; "but, you see, didn’t give me a chance to look at the address. As soon as I opened the box and took out its contents she reached for the pink envelope, which was lying on top of the heap, and she said: ‘Here it is; thank you very much.’ And she grabbed it before I had a chance to object. I was about to tell her that she couldn’t have the letter until she had convinced me that it was the right one, but before I could say a word she was hurrying up the street with the pink envelope in her hand bag." "And you didn’t follow her and insist upon her giving it up or letting you examine it?" exclaimed Owen. "No, sir; I didn’t bother. You see, I supposed everything was all right. I thought the young lady acted like that merely because she was excited and nervous. You know how jerky a woman’ll act when she’s got something on her mind. I put it down to that, and went ahead with my collections, not thinking any more about the matter until I got back here, and was asked to produce the pink envelope containing a hundred-dollar bill, which the parson had dropped into that same letter box." As the old man finished, he turned anxiously to Owen. "I hope you believe what I’ve told you? You’re not going to place me under arrest, are you, Mr. Sheridan?"