He scowled slightly and rested one hand on the bag.
"'All very well, Henry,' says Joe to me, 'but who's to do all this?
I don't know anyone that would dare to, let alone be willing,'" he
went on, glancing hurriedly around the room. "'You know as well as I
do that if they should get caught doing it, anybody would swear
'twas burglary plain and simple, and run' em right in. They'd call
the police. It would look bad for whoever did it, you know,' he
said."
"He might have asked me. I'd love to do it," Caroline muttered
resentfully.
As a matter of fact the scheme was sufficiently like many a
practical joke of her irrepressible uncle. Better than anyone,
Caroline, his conspirator elect, knew the lengths he was capable of
going to confound or scandalize his adjacent relatives.
"Of course," said the man, with relief in his voice, "that's why I
asked you if he hadn't. I guess he was afraid you wouldn't dare. I'd
have trusted you, though, myself."
She looked gratefully at him.
"Then, I said, 'Why, Joe, if that's the way you feel about it, I'll
do it myself,'" he concluded, lifting the suit-case from the
sideboard and grimacing at its weight. "'What's the good,' says I,
'of calling yourself a friend, if you can't run a little risk? Just
tell me the day to come and where you want 'em put--be sure you pick
a good safe place--and I'll 'tend to it for you,' I said, 'and
you'll do as much for me some day when I'm in a tight place.
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