"What did you do with it?" Mr. Tolman inquired with no great warmth of interest. "Gave it to the conductor, I suppose." The boy shook his head. "No, I didn't," was the answer. "I was afraid he might not turn it in, and as I liked the man who lost it I wanted to be sure he got it, so I brought it back with me." "And where is it now?" demanded Mr. Tolman, now all attention. "I hope you were not so careless as to leave it upstairs in our room." "No. I didn't leave it in the room," returned the lad. "It is out in my coat pocket. I meant to take it out and see what was in it; but so many things happened that I forgot about it until this very minute." "You don't mean that you left it in your ulster pocket and let them hang it out there on the rack?" "Yes." "You checked your coat and left it there?" "Why--yes," came the faltering reply. Mr. Tolman was on his feet. "Wait here until I come back," he said in a sharp tone. "Where are you going?" "Give me your check quickly," went on his father, without heeding the question. "Hurry!" Steve fumbled in his jacket pocket. "Be quick, son, be quick!" commanded Mr. Tolman impatiently. "Don't you know it is never safe to leave anything of value in your coat when you are staying at a large city hotel? Somebody may have taken the pocketbook already." Scarlet with consternation the lad produced the check. "If nothing has happened to that pocketbook you will be very fortunate," asserted the man severely. "Stay here! I will be right back." With beating heart the boy watched him thread his way between the tables and disappear from the dining room into the lobby. Suppose the bill book should be gone! What if there had been valuable papers in it, money--a great deal of money--and now through his carelessness it had all disappeared? How stupid he had been not to remember about it and give it to his father the instant they had met! In fact, he would much better have taken a chance and handed it to the bus conductor than to have done the foolish thing he had. He had meant so well and blundered so grievously! How often his father had cautioned him to be careful of money when he was traveling! Tensely he sat in his chair and waited with miserable anxiety, his eyes fixed on the dining-room door. Then presently, to his great relief, he saw his father returning. "Did you--" he began. "You will have to come yourself, Steve," said the elder man whose brow was wrinkled into a frown of annoyance. "The maid who checked the coats is not there, and the one who is insists that the ulster is not mine, and in spite of the check will not allow me to search the pockets of it." Stephen jumped up. "I suppose she is right, too," went on Mr. Tolman breathlessly, "but the delay is very unfortunate." They made their way into the corridor, where by this time an office clerk and another man had joined the maid who was in charge of the coat rack.