He collected his thoughts to the best of his ability to answer the
questions put to him. This was, however, all that he could tell them. He
had taken out the yearly sum of money that he always carried up to the
colonel for investment, and was in the act of counting it over once
again, to be sure that it was right. It was rather late in the evening,
and he was seated with his back towards the door. While he was in the
midst of counting, he heard some one enter the room; and before he had
time to turn about, he received a tremendous blow upon his head. After
that, all was a blank.
There had been a heap of money upon the table. Nothing was to be found
of it, however, but the piece that Joggi held in his hand when they
found him.
Even supposing that Joggi were the malefactor, where was the rest of
that money? When Andrew learned that they had taken Joggi into custody
and shut him up, he was very uneasy.
"Oh, you must let him go, poor Joggi!" he said. "He never would hurt the
smallest infant. _He_ never struck me."
For all that, Andrew had no suspicion who it could have been. He had no
enemy, he said, and knew of nobody who would wish him harm.
"It may have been a stranger," suggested the doctor, as he looked at the
window. "If you sat here, with the bright light shining upon your pile
of money while you counted it over on the table, anybody going by the
house could have seen you, and taken a notion to rob you.
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