"But Phil Henry is my next-door neighbor, an’ Phil Henry is cashier. He ain’t been let into the bank this morning no more than the other officers. And Phil told me that right lately Arad’s been getting his hands on all the cash he could. Mebbe he did have as much as a hundred and forty thousand there." "Wal?" proposed Tobias, unshaken. "Drat it all, Tobe? Don’t you see? Or won’t ye? Mebbe there ain’t been no real burglary at all. Looks funny. They say the vault door was opened on the combination. That ’twasn’t busted." "Huh?" "Arad just _says_ there was a burglary. S’pose he’d arranged for somebody to saw them bars on the sly and bust the winder-lock and drug Bill Purvis’s tea? Heh? S’pose Arad robbed the bank hisself?" "Oh, sugar!" murmured Tobias. "That’s what they all say. Why don’t you suggest something new?" "All right! All right! Don’t you believe it, Tobe," said his acquaintance. "You will remember what I told ye when you don’t see hide nor hair of your money again." "I don’t see it now," confessed Tobias rather ruefully. "But I still have hopes of Arad’s being pretty average honest." He found Heppy one of the most pessimistic of all those affected by or interested in the bank burglary. She was actually ill. Whether it was the excitement or the over-exertion of climbing the lighthouse stairs to the lamp room, the woman gave every indication of bodily as well as of mental illness. She sat in her rocking chair before the kitchen stove, weaving back and forth, and sobbing. When she raised her head to look at her brother as he entered, he was actually startled by her appearance. "Oh, sugar, Heppy! What’s the matter o’ ye?" [Illustration: "Oh, sugar, Heppy! What’s the matter o’ ye?"] "Did—did you get our money, Tobias?" she gasped. "No, no! O’ course not. Things have got to be straightened out." "Did you see Arad Thompson?" "Yes. I talked personally with him, Heppy." "What did he say?" urged the woman. "Why, he couldn’t say nothin’ yet. Not till the bank’s books was gone over. It’s bein’ done." "Tobias, that’s only an excuse. We’ll never see a penny of our money again!" And his sister broke into passionate sobs. "Dad fetch it!" ejaculated Tobias, "I give it as my opinion that there ain’t never been such a unanimity of opinion on one subject in this community since Noah stepped ashore from the ark. You folks have got it all settled that Arad Thompson is so crooked that he can’t lay straight in bed. Oh, sugar!" It was a very gloomy afternoon and evening at the Twin Rocks Light. The men got what little supper there was. Heppy went to bed still weeping and with a hot brick at her feet. "An’ I give it as my opinion, ’Zekiel," said the lightkeeper to the younger man, with frank disgust in his tone, "that Heppy can think with that hot brick just as good as she can with her head. There ain’t no mortal sense in her fussin’ and fumin’ the way she does." "But, Tobias! if the money is gone?"