"Give me that package!" cried the colonel. "Stop! where are you going?"
Lem Wacker had bolted. The colonel stared in marveling astonishment as
his cohort sprang through the open doorway. Bart had managed to wad the
cotton in his mouth into a compact wet mass, enabling him to speak.
"Colonel Harrington!" he cried, "that man has not got the package you
were after. He has instead stolen a money envelope for Martin & Company
containing fifteen thousand dollars in currency, and is making off with
it. Cut this rope instantly that I may pursue him, or I give you my word
that, as a partner in his crime, rich as you are, and influential as you
are, you shall go to the State penitentiary."
CHAPTER XXVIII
THIRTY SECONDS OF TWELVE
It was an exciting moment. Bart was intently worked up, but he kept his
head level. Everything hung on the action of the next two minutes.
Whatever price the rich Colonel Harrington was paying Lem Wacker for his
cooeperation, it was not enough to blind that individual to a realization
of the fact that accident had placed in Wacker's grasp the great haul of
his life, and he was making off with this fortune, leaving the colonel
in the lurch.
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