"Yes," answered Sam.

"He ought to have known that we would not pay it except upon his written order."

"He thought it would do just as well if I signed his name," said Sam, growing bolder.

"Then, he was mistaken."

"Can't you give me the money, then?"

"No, he must come himself."

"All right!" said Sam. "I'll tell him."

He spoke so naturally that the clerk was inclined to think his suspicions were needless, and that Sam was really an authorized agent of the real depositor. But when he got into the street, Sam's vexation found vent.

"Everything goes against me," he grumbled. "It hasn't done me a bit of good taking this book. I shall only have the trouble of putting it back again. I can't do it now, for I must go back to the store, without my lunch, too."

He counted upon replacing the book before it was missed; but Henry reached home first, and discovered his loss, as related in the preceding chapter.

CHAPTER XV.

SAM IS FOUND OUT.

Henry was not a little disturbed at the disappearance of his bank-book. He felt confident that he had laid it away in his trunk, and in that case it must have been stolen. But who possessed a key to the trunk? Could it be Sam? Henry recalled Sam's application for a loan, and he feared that it was really he. He determined to make inquiries as soon as his roommate came home.

He had scarcely formed this determination when Sam entered.

"You are home early, Henry," he said.

"No; it is you who are late."

"I didn't get out quite as soon as usual."

"I wonder whether he has missed the bankbook," thought Sam. "If he'd only go out, I'd put it back where I took it from."

Sam was soon informed as to the bank-book being missed.

"I can't find my bank-book anywhere, Sam," said Henry, looking searchingly at his companion.

"Can't you? Where did you put it?" asked Sam, trying to look unconcerned.

"In my trunk."

"Then it must be there now."

"It is not. I have looked carefully."

"Then, you didn't put it there. You must be mistaken."

"No, I am not."

"You may have dropped it out of your pocket on the way from the bank."

"No; I remember distinctly putting it in my trunk."

Sam shrugged his shoulders.

"I suppose you know best; but if you put it there, it must be there now."

"Unless it has been taken from my trunk," said Henry, significantly.

"Just so," said Sam, readily. "Perhaps the landlady has taken it, or Bridget, the chambermaid."

"I don't think they have."

"Will you lose the money if you don't find the book?"

"No; I can report my loss at the bank, and they will give me a new one."

"Then you're all right."

"I don't like the idea of my book being taken. The same one who took the old book may take the new one."

"Well, I haven't got any bank-book to worry about," said Sam. "Are you going out to supper?"

"Yes. Then, you don't know anything about my book?"

"I! Of course not!" answered Sam. "What should I know of it?"

"I don't know. Come, then, we'll go to supper."

Sam saw that he was suspected, and he knew that he deserved it, but he did not want Henry to ascertain definitely that such was the fact, He wanted to return the book as soon as he could without observation, but for this he must wait a while.

When supper was over, they took a walk of half an hour, and then Henry started to return to his room.

"I'll stay out a little longer," said Sam.

"Are you going to the theater?" asked Henry.

"Not unless you lend me the money," said Sam. "I'm hard up myself."

"You generally are."

"Of course I am. How can I help it on such a mean salary?"