The Tin Box, and What it Contained

“Strike while the iron’s hot!” This was the motto of Mrs. Ross, especially in a matter of this kind. She was firmly resolved to get rid of Uncle Obed as soon as she could.

As he walked out of the store, he felt more confidence than he had done in the morning. He had not got a place, to be sure, but he had earned thirty-two cents. This was not quit...

“He’s a nice fellow. I like him already. Of course I am sorry to lose my place, but, if I must, I am willing he should have it. I think we shall be good friends.”

It was very seldom that Mrs. Ross condescended to visit her poorer neighbors, and it was, therefore, not without considerable surprise that Mrs. Gilbert called to the door about...

Philip would not have felt flattered if he had been able to read the thoughts of his friend James Congreve, when the latter was riding away from the village where he had been bo...

Philip was elated by his triumph over Harry. Being cowardly by nature, he felt that it would be a terrible thing to stay in the lonely wood all night, and he naturally thought t...

Ralph Temple was still at his cottage, or, more properly, hut, waiting impatiently for Vernon to reappear, that he might obtain his share of the contents of the tin box.

Trial Justice Davis sat in his office. He was a man of sixty, with a keen but not unbenevolent face, looking all the more sagacious, perhaps, because of a pair of gold spectacle...

“Besides,” added Temple, “what do you think I care for five dollars? After you have stolen thousands of dollars from me, you dare to think I will let you off for five dollars.”

Probably the party had penetrated nearly a mile into the wood, and the tree against which Harry was leaning was not far from the center of the wood. The constrained position in...

Contrary to his usual custom, Philip spent the evening at home; and, as he must have something to occupy him, he spent it in reading. Usually, he cared very little for reading,...

“I was exploring a little. I was on my way home when I heard you shout. I guess I must be going now. I have to get up early in the morning, and so I go to bed early.”

“Gentlemen of your profession,” he said, “are generally well informed on that point. If found guilty, you will be boarded at the expense of the county for a term of years.”

“Partly both; but, however that may be, the owner of the property authorizes me to make a substantial acknowledgment for the service you have rendered him. Let me see—the reward...

Vernon, little dreaming that he was recognized by the office boy—as he took him to be—who had just jostled against him, kept on his way upstairs. His appearance was that of a we...

It hurt his pride to think that he should have such a shabby relation, and he resolved to ascertain by inquiry from his mother whether there were any grounds for the old man’s c...

The old man—to begin with the oldest first—was sitting in a rocking chair, with his hands folded in his lap, and an expression of placid contentment on his face. He had reached...

It may be well imagined that Harry was in a thrill of excitement as he walked home. He had just witnessed what was undoubtedly an attempt to conceal the proceeds of a burglary....

“Philip,” said his mother, at the breakfast table the next morning, “the servant tells me she found the outside door unlocked this morning. Didn’t I ask you to lock it before yo...

Harry stepped on board the train without seeing any one whom he knew, and took a seat on the right-hand side. Just in front of him was an elderly farmer, with a face well browne...

Harry turned, and his glance, too, fell on the menacing face of the outlaw. But his face did not reflect the terror so plainly to be seen on Philip’s. It should be remembered, h...

There was an early train from the neighboring village of Crampton to New York. Harry got up early, and walked the first part of the way through the fields to a point where the f...

There were two persons outside, one of whom was our hero, Harry Gilbert. The other, though dressed in citizen’s clothes, was an officer, who had been sent to arrest Temple, on a...

“Have you finished breakfast already, Harry?” asked Mrs. Gilbert, as Harry rose hurriedly from the table and reached for his hat, which hung on a nail especially appropriated to...

James Congreve was a dangerous companion for Philip. He was utterly unscrupulous, but took care to keep up a semblance of propriety, in order not to terrify the boy whom he was...

“On the fifteenth instant, a Tin Box, containing a considerable sum in Five-Twenty Government and Union Pacific Bonds, was stolen from the office of the subscriber. The above su...

Her pride compelled her to the course, notwithstanding the extra trouble she incurred, and this, also, she laid up against Harry. Her husband was opposed to any change, not bein...

The house of Colonel Ross was the finest in the village, with one exception. A certain Mr. Carrington, a city merchant, had, five years before, built a country villa surpassing...

“Mr. Rogers,” said Mrs. Gilbert, who knew the constable well, “Colonel Ross has made a cruel and unwarranted charge against Harry. I hope you don’t believe he is a thief.”

To Philip’s disgust, Harry drove off, leaving him alone with his disabled carriage. It was a good time to consider whether he had acted wisely in demanding more than the law or...

It might strike the reader as curious that Philip began to be impatient to have his father make the discovery. An impending blow always leads to a state of suspense which is by...

“Where did that other bond come from?” thought Colonel Ross, as he wended his way homeward. “I can’t understand it. Perhaps the boy took it from some one else. It is just possib...

“But your work is not yet done. As soon as the detectives have returned, you must go back at once to Waybridge with them, and lead them to the place where the box is concealed.”

As he had no place in view, he continued to go to the berry field every day, supplying his mother with what she needed, and disposing of the rest to Mr. Mead.

Philip and Congreve engaged in conversation, the latter apparently forgetting that he had a gun on his shoulder. Harry, however, remembered that he was guide to a sportsman, and...

“The fact is, Gilbert,” commenced Congreve, in the cool, deliberate tone habitual to him—for he seldom allowed himself to get excited—“my friend Philip, here, feels that you hav...

“It don’t do you a mite of harm to work. I had to work when I was a boy, and I’ve done my share of work since I got to be a man.”

Philip was far from being a model boy—as we have seen, he didn’t shrink from meanness—but it was not without reluctance that he assented to James Congreve’s proposal. He did not...

Philip thirsted for revenge upon Harry, but it did not seem very clear in what way it was to be obtained. The trouble was that Harry was always in the right in all the difficult...

Harry was surprised. He had scarcely any acquaintance with Congreve, whom he knew chiefly as a companion of Philip Ross. Hitherto he had taken no notice of Harry—a circumstance...

“I am going to the bottom of this affair,” said Colonel Ross, as he sipped his second cup of coffee at the breakfast table the next morning. “The Gilbert boy must suffer the con...

“No, thank you,” answered Philip, with an involuntary grimace; for, in his younger days, when it was useless to resist, he had more than once had an opportunity of learning how...