Nobody else could have done it--nobody else was in the store when he bought
that stickpin he wears. After he left the shop the bracelet was missing."

"Frank, if you have the bracelet give it up," said his aunt coldly.

"See here, aunt," cried Frank, firing up instantly at this, "you don't mean
to say that you imagine for one instant that I am a thief?"

"We are all sinful and tempted," returned Miss Brown in a tearful,
whispering tone.

"Not me," dissented Frank--"not in that mean way, anyhow. Why, you wretched
old man!" he fairly shouted at Samuel Mace, "how dare you even so much as
insinuate that I know anything about your missing bracelet--if there is any
missing bracelet."

"You was in my store--it was gone after you left. You took it," stubbornly
insisted the jeweler.

"I tell you I didn't take it!" cried Frank.

"You give it up, or I'll have you arrested," declared the jeweler.

"If you do, my folks will make it hot for you," declared Frank. "I am no
thief."

He drew himself up proudly in his conscious innocence, and marched from the
room all on fire with resentment and just indignation.

"Why, the old curmudgeon!" exclaimed the boy as he passed out into the open