THE DIAMOND BRACELET
Frank looked at the speaker in wonder. He knew Samuel Mace, the jeweler,
perfectly well. The village tradesman was greatly excited, and he glided
toward Frank in a threatening way, as if he would walk straight over him.
What made the occasion doubly puzzling to Frank was the fact that his aunt
looked more severe, shocked and alarming than ever before. He did not move,
drawing upright with boyish manliness, and the jeweler halted and then
retreated a step or two.
"Your diamond bracelet, Mr. Mace?" repeated Frank in a perplexed tone; and
then, with a faint smile, glancing at the wrist of the angry visitor: "I
did not know you wore one."
"Don't you try to be funny!" stormed the jeweler, and he seized Frank by
the arm. "You young rascal, where is that bracelet you took from my store?"
Frank got a glimmering of the facts now. He was dumfounded, and listened
like one in a dream, while Mr. Mace continued his furious tirade:
"He took it. Can't you see from his actions that he took it, Miss Brown?
Nobody else could have done it--nobody else was in the store when he bought
that stickpin he wears. After he left the shop the bracelet was missing."
"Frank, if you have the bracelet give it up," said his aunt coldly.
"See here, aunt," cried Frank, firing up instantly at this, "you don't mean
to say that you imagine for one instant that I am a thief?"
"We are all sinful and tempted," returned Miss Brown in a tearful,
whispering tone.
"Not me," dissented Frank--"not in that mean way, anyhow. Why, you wretched
old man!" he fairly shouted at Samuel Mace, "how dare you even so much as
insinuate that I know anything about your missing bracelet--if there is any
missing bracelet."
"You was in my store--it was gone after you left. You took it," stubbornly
insisted the jeweler.
"I tell you I didn't take it!" cried Frank.
"You give it up, or I'll have you arrested," declared the jeweler.
"If you do, my folks will make it hot for you," declared Frank. "I am no
thief."
He drew himself up proudly in his conscious innocence, and marched from the
room all on fire with resentment and just indignation.
"Why, the old curmudgeon!" exclaimed the boy as he passed out into the open
air again. "How dare he make such a charge. I won't even argue it with him;
it's too ridiculous."
He had cooled down somewhat after walking aimlessly and excitedly about the
garden a round or two. When he came again to the front of the house, Samuel
Mace was departing from the scene. As he caught sight of Frank he waved his
cane angrily at him with the words:
"I'll see about this, young man!"
Frank went into the house to find his aunt locking up the secretary in the
library, just as she did when there was a burglar scare in town. Her very
glance and manner accused Frank, and he could scarcely restrain himself
from arguing with her. Then he remembered his promise to his absent parents
and that Miss Brown was a credulous, suspicious old maid. He tried to
forget his troubles by going after his fishing-rod. This he had left at the
spot near the river where he had met Ned Foreman. Frank swung along
whistling recklessly, but he did not feel at all pleasant or easy.
He had returned from his errand and was putting in a miserable enough time
feeding some pet pigeons when a voice hailed him from the fence railings.
"Hey, Frank--this way for a minute."
Frank recognized a friend and crony of Samuel Mace. This was pompous,
red-faced Judge Roseberry. He had once been elected by mistake a justice
of the peace, had never gotten a second term, but for some eight or ten
years had traded on his past reputation. He managed to eke out a living by
giving what he called legal advice at a cheap rate, and mixing in politics.
Sometimes he collected bills for the tradesmen of the town, and in this way
he had been useful to Mace. Most of the time, however, he hung around the
village tavern. He looked now to Frank as if he had just come from that
favorite resort of his. There was an unsteady gravity in the way that he
poked an impressive finger at Frank as he spoke to the youth.
"What do you want?" demanded Frank, ungraciously enough, as he half guessed
the mission of this bloated and untidy emissary of the law.
"Judicial, see?" observed Roseberry, gravely balancing against the picket
fence.
"Go ahead," challenged Frank, keeping out of radius of the judge's breath.
"Come, come, young man," maundered Roseberry. "I'm too old a bird to have
to circumlocate. You know your father has great confidence in me."
"I never heard of it before," retorted Frank.
"Oh, yes," insisted Roseberry with bland unction. "Had a case of his once."
"The only case I ever knew of," returned Frank, "was a collection he gave
you to make. I heard him tell my mother that he never saw the creditor or
the money, either, since."
"Ah--er--difficult case; yes, yes, decidedly complex, costs and
commissions," stammered the judge, becoming more turkey-red than he
naturally was. "We won't retrospect. To the case in hand."
"Well?" spoke Frank, looking so open-faced and steadily at Roseberry that
the latter blinked.
"I--that is--I would suggest an intermediary, see? The law is very
baffling, my friend. Once in its clutches a man is lost."
"But I'm not a man--I'm only an innocent, misjudged boy," burst forth
Frank. "See here, Judge Roseberry, I know why you come and who sent you."
"My client, Mr. Mace--"
"Is a wicked, unjust man," flared out Frank, "and you are just as bad.
Neither of you can possibly believe that I would steal. Why, I don't have
to steal. I have what money I need, and more than that. I tell you, if my
father was here I think you people would take back-water quick enough. When
he does come, you shall suffer for this."
Judge Roseberry looked impressed. He stared at Frank in silence. Perhaps
his muddled mind reflected that the accused lad had a good reputation
generally. Anyhow, the open, resolute way in which Frank spoke daunted him.
But he shook his head in an owl-like manner after a pause and remarked:
"My function's purely legal in the case--must do my duty."
"Do it, then, and don't bother me," said Frank irritably, and started away
from the spot.
"Hold on, hold on," called out the judge after him. "I've a compromise to
offer."
"There is nothing to compromise," asserted Frank over his shoulder.
"Suggestion, then. Don't be foolish, young man."
"Well, what's your suggestion?" demanded Frank.
"We'll take a walk in the woods, see? I've got a ten-dollar bill in my
pocket. I'll walk one way, you walk the other. No witnesses. I'll put the
ten-dollar bill on the stump--you'll do your part at another stump. We'll
turn, pass each other. Backs to each other, see?"
"I don't know what you are driving at," declared Frank.
"As you pass my stump you take up the ten-dollar bill; it's yours. As I
pass your stump--backs to each other, mind you, no witnesses, matter
pleasantly adjusted--I'll pick up the diamond bracelet."
"All right--that suits me," said Frank readily, but with a grim twinkle in
his eye.
"You agree?" inquired the judge eagerly.
"Yes."
"Good."
"Provided you furnish the bracelet," went on the boy.
"Bah!" snorted the judge in high dudgeon, marching from the spot. "Young
man, I've done my duty out of consideration for your respected family. You
won't listen to reason, so you must take the consequences. I shall advise
Mr. Mace to have you arrested at once."