And you never saw such a look as came over his face when he heard Mr. Carroll say there was five hundred dollars in that pocketbook . '' `` Well , I did suggest to them that Ned might know something about it , for I remembered having seen him go down the lane while I was waiting for you , but they wo n't hear of such a thing . The Brookes are kind of protégés of theirs , you know , and they wo n't believe anything bad of them . If Ned did take it , however , there 's not a shadow of evidence against him . '' `` No , I suppose not , '' I answered thoughtfully , `` but the more I think it over , the more I 'm convinced that he took it . You know , we all went to the back field to look at the Jerseys , and all that time the coat was hanging there in the hall , and not a soul in the house . And it was just after we came back that I saw Ned scuttling down the lane so fast . '' I mentioned my suspicions to the Carrolls a few days afterwards , when I went down with the photographs , and found that they had discovered no trace of the lost pocketbook . But they seemed positively angry when I hinted that Ned Brooke might know more about its whereabouts than anyone else . They declared that they would as soon think of suspecting one of themselves as Ned , and altogether they seemed so offended at my suggestion that I held my peace and did n't irritate them by any more suppositions . Afterwards , in the excitement of our cousins ' visit , the matter passed out of my mind completely . They stayed two weeks , and I was so busy the whole time that I never got a chance to develop that third plate and , in fact , I had forgotten all about it . One morning soon after they went away , I remembered the plate and decided to go and develop it . Cecil went with me , and we shut ourselves up in our den , lit our ruby lantern and began operations . I did not expect much of the plate , because it had been exposed and handled carelessly , and I thought that it might prove to be underexposed or light-struck . So I left Cecil to develop it while I prepared the fixing bath . Cecil was whistling away when suddenly he gave a tremendous `` whew '' of astonishment and sprang to his feet . `` Amy , Amy , look here ! '' he cried . I rushed to his side and looked at the plate as he held it up in the rosy light .
It was a splendid one , and the Carroll house came out clear , XXXXX the front door and the steps in full view .
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