The $500 Check — page 199: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

180 THE $500 CHECK. ‘¢??m not sure that that will answer, unless f hide the key.’’ | ‘Do you seriously think a human being took the things ?”’ | ‘¢ Yes, I do—in the middle of the night.”’ ‘‘By gracious! that’s serious. He might have come into our room and taken my wallet and watch.”’ ‘¢And maybe murdered us in our beds!”’ added Mrs. Wilson grimly. ‘‘ Did you hear anybody walking round the house last night, Bert?’’ asked the farmer, who was by this time worked up into a state of agitation. ‘‘No,’’ answered Bert. “Tm glad he did not ask me whether I saw anybody,’ thought he. ‘‘I don’t want to tell a lie.’ | ‘‘T usually sleep pretty sound,”’ he added, a little ashamed of his duplicity, yet not know- ing how else to avert suspicions. ‘“So we all do!” said the farmer’s wife. ‘¢We might be all murdered in our beds with- out knowing anything about it.”’ ‘‘T shouldn’t want to know anything about (E(@) Al G JOO cS