She couldn't have stood it and
lived.
"Some one has been in the shed, taken samples of all my material,
including the steel shavings that came from the last melting, and my
notebook is gone. The process is stolen, Roxy, and all the sacrifices
gone for nothing. I don't care for myself--but--you." His head was up
in the same old portrait pose, but his arms trembled as he held them
out to Roxanne.
I stood still and cold and never said one word, but a pain hit into my
heart that I didn't know I was strong enough to stand and still live.
"When did you find it out?" I asked; and I was surprised at the cool
note that sounded in my voice and made it like Father's when he talks
business.
"Just now," he answered me over Roxanne's head that was buried on his
shoulder. "I stopped down-town to help Judge Luttrell with a brief
that he was writing and came home only a few minutes ago. The thief
was in the shed between the time I went on the hay ride and now. I was
in the shed just before I started."
I don't know how I said good-night to them; but I did the best I
could, and came home through the moonlight with a great heaviness of
heart and feet.
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