"Here is your
missing coat," he said, as Jean threw her arm about his shoulder.
"Oskar, dear--" she whispered, and the next moment Hedin's arms were
about her and she could feel the wild pounding of his heart against her
breast.
There was a movement on the floor near their feet, and releasing the
girl Hedin reached swiftly down. McNabb's hand stayed him before he
could seize hold of Wentworth, who was crawling toward the door.
"Let him go, lad," advised the old man. "We've got the coat.
An'--an'--we're all happy!"
"But the money? He's got the three hundred and fifty thousand!" cried
Hedin.
McNabb grinned. "Suppose we just let Orcutt worry about that," he said.
"I told you Oskar was innocent!" cried Jean triumphantly, as the door
closed behind the slinking form of Wentworth. "I told you so from the
first! I just knew he never took that coat!"
McNabb's eyes were twinkling. "I knew it, too, lass," he answered.
"That's why I bailed him out an' sent him up here with two hundred an'
fifty thousand dollars in negotiable paper in his pocket to close this
deal for me."
"And you knew all the time," cried the girl, staring at her father in
amazement, "when Orcutt was gloating over you back there, that you, and
not he, owned the timber? And you let him go on and humiliate you to
your face!"
"Sure I did," grinned McNabb. "He was havin' the time of his life, an'
I hated to spoil it.
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