till you prove that they are yours

"Utterly absurd! People don't often give boys such presents as that. Constable, I call on you to arrest that boy." "Where is your warrant, Colonel?" "Arrest him on suspicion." "I could not do it." "Then you mean to connive at his escape?" "No; I'll stay here to-night, if you insist upon it." "Do so, and I will take the bonds." "Lay them down, Colonel Ross; they are my property!" said Harry, sternly. "You can't be allowed to take 'em, Colonel, till you prove that they are yours. One you admit is not," said the constable. "It doesn't matter much," replied the Colonel, discomfited. "They will find their way back to me soon. This boy won't take on so high a tone tomorrow." Chapter 38 Philip's Surprise "Where did that other bond come from?" thought Colonel Ross, as he wended his way homeward. "I can't understand it. Perhaps the boy took it from some one else. It is just possible that his mother may have owned a fifty-dollar bond." To do Colonel Ross justice, he really thought that the bonds he had discovered were his own, and he was convinced, by what his son had told him, that Harry had really entered his house on the night when the outer door had been left open and abstracted them. Philip, disappointed at not finding his friend Congreve at the hotel, took his way home, and was already in the house when his father returned. He was naturally curious to hear something of the result of his errand. "Well, father," he said, eagerly, as the Colonel entered the room where he was seated, "what luck did you have?" "I found the bonds," said his father, briefly. Nothing could have astonished Philip more, knowing what he did as to the manner in which they had really been disposed of. He looked the picture of amazement. "Found the bonds!" he ejaculated.