CHAPTER XX. BENTON IS TRAPPED.

Judging that his employer’s suspicions were allayed, Benton ventured to take two five-dollar bills from the till before he went out in the evening. Currency was at that time mixed, and bills, as well as gold and silver, were in circulation.

He left the restaurant at the usual time. It so happened that Grant had something to do and did not go out with him. Benton, therefore, went at once to the gambling-house which he was in the habit of frequenting.

“I’m getting tired of being cooped up in the restaurant day after day,” he said impatiently. “Why can’t I make a strike? If I could scoop in four hundred dollars to-night I would leave Sacramento and go to the mines. Then I might strike it rich and carry home ten thousand dollars, as Grant’s friend did.”

Grant had told him the story of John Heywood’s 169good fortune, and it had impressed him.

“If a clodhopper like that can make a fortune, why shouldn’t I?” he asked himself.

So his purpose to go to the mines and try his luck was strengthened. If he had begun six months before to save money, he would have had enough to start before this, but Albert Benton was one of those who despised small and steady savings, and are always on the lookout to “make a strike,” as he termed it.

“That boy won’t spy on me to-night,” he said to himself. “I must be careful. If the old man knew where I spent my evenings he would smell a rat. I wonder how much I’ve taken from the drawer in the last three months. Fully as much as my wages, I expect. Well, he can stand it. He’s making plenty of money, anyhow.”

It was in this way that he excused his thefts. Yet he felt that he would like to leave the restaurant and put himself in the way of making that fortune for which he yearned.

Though Grant was not in the street to see 170where he went, there was another who quietly noticed his movements and followed his steps. This was John Vincent, the ex-detective. From the first he had suspected Benton and doubted Grant’s guilt. He was a man skilled in physiognomy, and he had studied Benton’s face and formed a pretty accurate estimation of his real character.

“If Benton hasn’t robbed my friend Smithson’s till, then I lose my guess,” he said to himself.

He did not, however, say much of his suspicions to the keeper of the restaurant, who, he saw, was disposed to consider Grant the guilty party. He waited till he had some evidence to offer in confirmation of his theory.

When Benton entered the gambling-house Vincent followed close behind him. Benton saw him, but did not know that he was a special friend of Mr. Smithson.

Vincent placed himself at a neighboring table in such a position that he could watch Benton. He saw him take out one of the bills which he had abstracted from the till, and stake it.

171“What do you put down paper for?” asked a man beside him. “Gold is better.”

“Bills are just as good,” said Benton.

“I will give you gold for bills,” said Vincent. “I want to send some money to the East.”

“All right, and thank you,” said Benton. “Here are two fives.”

“And here are two gold pieces,” said Vincent.

There was a secret look of elation on his face as he received the bills, and furtively noticed a red cross on the back of each. They had been secretly marked by himself as a trap to catch the thief, whoever he might be.

“Now I have you, my man,” he thought. “This is the evidence I have been looking for. It settles the question of Benton’s guilt and Grant’s innocence.”

Vincent played two or three times for slight stakes, and rose from the table after a while neither a loser nor a winner.

He did not go immediately, but stayed, like many others, simply as a looker on.

“Won’t you join us?” asked Benton.

172“No; I must go away soon. I want to write a letter. I only dropped in for a few minutes.”

Albert Benton played with unusual good fortune. He had been in the habit of bewailing his poor luck, but to-night the fates seemed to favor him. The little pile of gold before him gradually increased, until he had four hundred and seventy-five dollars.

“Twenty-five dollars more, and then I will stop,” he said. “To-morrow I will give notice to Smithson and get ready to leave Sacramento.”

But instead of winning the sum desired, he began to lose. He lost twenty-five dollars, and in desperation staked fifty. Should he win he would still have five hundred dollars, and then he would leave off. Upon that he was quite determined. But again he lost. He bit his lips, his face flushed, his hands trembled, and there was a gleam of excitement in his eye. He had no thought of leaving off now. It must be five hundred dollars or nothing!

There is no need to follow him through his 173mutations of luck. At the end of an hour he rose from the table without a dollar. He had enough, however, to buy a glass of whiskey, which he gulped down, and then staggered out of the gambling-house.

“I was so near, and yet I lost!” he said to himself bitterly. “Why didn’t I keep the four hundred and seventy-five dollars when I had it, and get the other from the restaurant? I have been a fool—a besotted fool!”

He pulled down his hat over his eyes and bent his steps homeward, where he tossed all night, unable to sleep.

But in the morning his courage returned.

“After all,” he reflected, “I am only ten dollars worse off than when I entered the gambling house, and that was money I took from Smithson. I’ve had a pretty good lesson. The next time fortune smiles upon me I’ll make sure of what I have won, and leave off in time.”

Vincent went straight from the gambling-house to the house of his friend Smithson. The latter came down stairs half dressed and let him in.

174“What brought you here so late?” he asked, rubbing his eyes.

“Because I have some news for you.”

“What is it? Nothing bad, I hope.”

“Oh, no; it is only that I have found the thief who has been robbing you.”

“It is the boy, then, as I thought,” said Smithson eagerly.

“No, it isn’t the boy.”

“Who, then?”

“Who else is there? It is Albert Benton.”

“Are you sure of this?” asked Smithson, dumfounded.

“Yes; there is no doubt of it.”

“Come in and tell me how you found out.” Vincent entered and sat down on a chair in the front room.

“I will tell you,” he answered. “I took the liberty to go to your money drawer and mark four bills this afternoon. I marked them with a red cross on the right-hand corner of the reverse side. Well, Benton took two of those bills with him this evening when he stopped work.”

“How do you know?”

175“I was near by when he left the restaurant. I followed him at a distance, and saw him enter Poole’s gambling-house.”

“Well?”

“I entered too, and took my place at a neighboring table. He produced a five-dollar bill, when some one suggested that gold was preferable. Upon that I offered to give him gold for bills. He produced two fives, and I gave him two gold pieces for them.”

“Well?”

“Here they are.”

The detective drew from his wallet two bank-notes, and showed Smithson the red cross on the reverse side of each.