Hawkins' jaw had dropped as he stared at John Bruce.
“Crang did it! You--you say Crang committed that robbery?” stammered Paul Veniza. “But you were unconscious! Still you--you seem to know that the safe was robbed!”
“Apparently I do!” John Bruce laughed shortly. “Crang too thought I was unconscious, but to make sure he jabbed me with his needle. It took effect just at the right time--for Crang--just as you and Claire appeared in the doorway. And”--his brows knitted together--“it seems a little strange that none of you have ever mentioned it in my presence; that not a word has ever been said to me about it.”
“You were sick,” he said; “too sick, we thought, for any excitement.”
Hawkins suddenly leaned forward; his wrinkled face was earnest.
“That is not true!” he said bluntly. “It might have been at first, but it wasn't after you got better. It was mostly your money that was stolen. Claire put it there the night you came here, and----”
“Hawkins!” Paul Veniza called out sharply in reproof.
“But he knows now it's gone,” said the old cabman a little helplessly. He blundered on: “Paul felt he was responsible for your money, and he was afraid you might not want to take it if you knew he had to make it up out of his own pocket, and----”
John Bruce took a step forward, and laid his hand on Paul Veniza's shoulder. He stood silently, looking at the other.
“It is nothing!” said Paul Veniza, abashed.
“Perhaps not!” said John Bruce. “But”--he turned abruptly away, his lips tight--“it just made me think for a minute. In the life I've led men like you are rare.”
“We were speaking of Doctor Crang,” said Paul Veniza a little awkwardly. “If you know that Doctor Crang is the thief, then that is the way out of our trouble. Instead of marrying Claire, he will be sent to prison.”
“You said yourself I was unconscious at the time. You certainly must have found me that way, and Crang would make you testify that for days I had been raving in delirium. I do not think you could convict him on my testimony.”
“But even so,” said Paul Veniza, “there is Claire. If she knew that Crang was a criminal, she----”
“She does know,” said John Bruce tersely.
“Claire knows!” ejaculated Paul Veniza in surprise. “You--you told her, then?”