"If he did he came back again. Of course, I did not speak to him. But I am not likely to make a mistake in identifying him, wherever I see him. And he couldn’t have got out of town after I saw him, come to think of it, until this morning. Not by train; for there are no trains in either direction after the time I saw him. That’s sure." "That is strange," murmured Lorna. "I am sure the family thought he had gone——" She noted the oddly curious gaze Degger had fixed upon her face, and she halted. She felt uncomfortable. She wondered what it meant—this odd performance of Ralph’s. She wished Jackson would return to the car. But somebody did break away from the excited crowd before the bank and cross the wide thoroughfare toward the automobile. Ezra Crouch’s bald face shone with curiosity and his glance shifted from Degger to the girl in the car. The tale that Degger himself had told about town, implicating Lorna Nicholet and Ralph Endicott, had been a choice morsel under Ezra’s tongue. He thought the present situation pregnant of further gossip. "He, he! Ain’t this a queer set-to?" he wanted to know. "Those folks that have lost money think they can _talk_ it back into their pockets. I can tell ’em——" "Haven’t they any idea who the burglars were, Mr. Crouch?" interposed Lorna. "Not the fust idee. ’Nless it’s Tobias. Tobias is sharp. He’s found the only clue, as they call it, that’s been found so far. But that Arad Thompson——" "What has the skipper found, Ezra?" asked Degger, lighting another cigarette. "A gold knife. Found it right under that winder where the burglars sawed through the bars." "A gold knife!" repeated Lorna with interest. "They surely did not use such a tool to cut the window bars?" "Bless ye, no, Miss Lorny! But ’tis evident—an’ so Tobias says—that one o’ the burgulars tore it off his watch chain when he scrambled in over the winder-sill." "Oh! It was a gold penknife? And he wore it on a watch chain like——" Again she halted in the middle of a sentence. She paled and then flushed, flashing a sly glance at Degger. He seemed not to have noticed what she said. He was not even looking at her. "Oh!" she whispered again, and was glad that Jackson saw her waiting and that he hurried back to the car. "Good-day, Mr. Degger. Good-day, Mr. Crouch," she said, as Jackson got in and started the engine. Lorna did not show Degger her face again. She continued to think about that gold penknife that had been found under the bank window. Ralph Endicott wore such a knife on his watch chain. And Degger said he had seen Ralph in town last evening—long after he was supposed to have left Clinkerport by train. Of course, any thought linking Ralph with the mysterious penknife was ridiculous. It could not be that the most evil-intentioned tongue would dovetail Ralph’s movements with the Clinkerport Bank robbery. Yet—Lorna did not trust Conway Degger!