The Adventures of Don Lavington | Page 7

night the cloud
over the lad's life seemed darker than ever.
"She takes uncle's side and thinks he is everything," he said gloomily,
as he went to bed. "She means right, but she is wrong. Oh, how I wish I
could go right away somewhere and begin life all over again."
Then he lay down to sleep, but slumber did not come, so he went on
thinking of many things, to fall into a state of unconsciousness at last,
from which he awoke to the fact that it was day--a very eventful day for
him, but he did not awaken to the fact that he was very blind.
CHAPTER THREE.
AN AWKWARD GUINEA.
It was a busy day at the yard, for a part of the lading of a sugar ship was
being stored away in Uncle Josiah's warehouses; but from the very
commencement matters seemed to go wrong, and the state of affairs
about ten o'clock was pretty ably expressed by Jem Wimble, who came
up to Don as he was busy with pencil and book, keeping account of the
deliveries, and said in a loud voice,--
"What did your uncle have for breakfast, Mas' Don?"
"Coffee--ham--I hardly know, Jem."
"Ho! Thought p'r'aps it had been cayenne pepper."
"Nonsense!"
"Ah, you may say that, but see how he is going it. 'Tarn't my fault that
the dock men work so badly, and 'tarn't my fault that Mike isn't here,
and--"

"Don't stand talking to Wimble, Lindon," said a voice sharply, and
Uncle Josiah came up to the pair. "No, don't go away, Wimble. Did
Bannock say he should stay away to-day?"
"Not to me, uncle."
"Nor to me, sir."
"It's very strange, just as we are so busy too. He has not drawn any
money."
"P'r'aps press-gang's got him, sir," suggested Jem.
"Humph! Hardly likely!" said Uncle Josiah; and he went on and entered
the office, to come out at the end of a few minutes and beckon to Don.
"Lindon," he said, as the lad joined him, "I left nine guineas and a half
in the little mahogany bowl in my desk yesterday. Whom have you
paid?"
"Paid? No one, sir."
"But eight guineas are gone--missing."
"Eight guineas? Missing, sir?"
"Yes, do you know anything about them?"
"No, sir. I--that is--yes, I remember now: I picked up a guinea on the
floor, and meant to give it to you. Here it is: I forgot all about it."
Don took a piece of gold from his flap waistcoat pocket, and handed it
to his uncle, who looked at him so curiously that the boy grew
confused.
"Picked this up on the floor, Lindon?" said Uncle Josiah.
"Yes, sir. It had rolled down by my desk."

"It is very strange," said Uncle Josiah, thoughtfully. "Well, that leaves
seven missing. You had better look round and see if you can find
them."
Don felt uncomfortable, he hardly knew why; but it seemed to him that
his uncle looked at him doubtingly, and this brought a feeling of hot
indignation into the boy's brain.
He turned quickly, however, entered the office, and with his uncle
looking on, searched all over the floor.
"Well?"
"There's nothing here, sir. Of course not," cried Don eagerly; "Mrs
Wimble sweeps up every morning, and if there had been she would
have found it."
Uncle Josiah lifted off his cocked hat, and put it on again wrong way
first.
"This is a very unpleasant affair, Lindon," he said. "I can afford to lose
seven guineas, or seven hundred if it came to that, but I can't afford to
lose confidence in those whom I employ."
Don felt hot and cold as his uncle walked to the door and called Jem;
and as he waited he looked at the map of an estate in the West Indies,
all fly-specked and yellow, then at the portraits of three merchant
vessels in full sail, all as yellow and fly-specked as the map, and
showing the peculiarity emphasised by the ingenious artist, of their
sails blown out one way and their house flags another.
"Surely uncle can't suspect me," he said to himself; and then the
thought came again--"surely uncle can't suspect me."
"Come in here, Wimble," said Uncle Josiah, very sternly.
Jem took off his hat, and followed him into the office.
"Some money is missing from my desk, Wimble. Have you seen it?"

"Me, sir?" said Jem, stooping down and peering in all directions under
the desks. "No, sir, I harn't seen it. Let's see, I don't think I've been here
only when I locked up."
"By some mischance I left my desk unlocked when I went out in a
hurry yesterday. Lindon here has found one piece on the floor."
"P'r'aps tothers is there, too," said Jem eagerly.
"No; we have