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Updated: June 3, 2025
Mrs Corporal Beane had caught sight of the group of officers they were approaching, and with her heart in her mouth as she called it, she hurried up to the side of the mule, catching up to it just as they came abreast of the Colonel, a quiet stern-looking officer whose hair was sprinkled with grey. Nothing escaped his sharp eyes, and he pressed his horse's side and rode close to the baggage mule.
She was kneeling down by Corporal Beane when she spoke, and had been trying to comfort him, for he had done nothing but growl because the doctor said he must not think of getting up, and as she talked to him she said suddenly: "Oh, if I could only know what has become of my boy." She stopped short, for at that moment a shot was fired, and Corporal Beane sat up and reached for his musket.
"If you identify it as the box taken from the bank," answered Luke, "I will tell you. Otherwise I should prefer to say nothing, for it is a secret of another person." "Matters look very suspicious, in my opinion, gentlemen," said Squire Duncan, turning to his associates. "Not necessarily," said Mr. Beane, who seemed inclined to favor our hero. "Luke may have a good reason for holding his tongue."
A short halt was made by the pool, while stimulants were administered again to the Colonel, and Mrs Beane insisted on Dick having more, the men eating their scanty rations by the pool. Then the wounded man was carefully laid in the litter so that Dick could lie there too, with his head the opposite way: the men raised their poles, and the march back was begun.
"I don't believe Luke is a bad boy." Prince Duncan felt obliged to listen to that suggestion, Mr. Bailey and Mr. Beane being men of consideration in the village. "Young man," he said, "we are ready to hear your story. From whom did you receive this box?" "From a man named Roland Reed," answered Luke. The four visitors looked at each other in surprise.
"I object," said Squire Duncan, quickly. "Permit me to say that your refusal is extraordinary," said Mr. Beane, pointedly. "You ask the witness to prove property, and then decline to allow him to do so." Squire Duncan, who saw that he had been betrayed into a piece of folly, said sullenly: "I don't agree with you, Mr. Beane, but I withdraw my objection.
Gentlemen, I presume this story makes the same impression on you as on me?" Mr. Beane shook his head. "It may be true; it is not impossible," he said. "You believe, then, there is such a man as Roland Reed?" "There may be a man who calls himself such." "If there is such a man, he is a thief." "It may be so, but that does not necessarily implicate Luke."
"Did he give any reason for making this request?" "He said he was about to leave the neighborhood, and wished it taken care of. He asked me to put it under lock and key." "Did he state why he selected you for this trust?" asked Mr. Beane. "No, sir; he paid me for my trouble, however. He gave me a bank-note, which, when I reached home, I found to be a ten-dollar bill."
In another week he delighted Mrs Corporal Beane by watching her constantly with wondering eyes, and suddenly asking her who she was. In her motherly delight she told him "Mother Beane," and he began calling her mother directly, while in another week Corporal Joe had taught the patient to call him Dad, and wondering began. "Haven't you asked him?" said Joe.
Beane, "have you the key unlocking the missing box?" "No, sir," answered Squire Duncan, after a slight pause. "Then I don't think we can decide as to the identity of the two boxes." The trustees looked at each other in a state of indecision. No one knew what ought to be done. "What course do you think we ought to take, Squire Duncan?" asked Mr. Bailey.
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