The scoundrel! He has stolen the papers! He must have known they were there.

And then, to save himself, he put me on to the job.

For who would be suspected if not--oh, Lord!--if not me ?" He grasped his paste brush, and attacked his work with a feverish anxiety to find relief in exertion; but his heart was not in it, and presently a thought pierced his brain, as an arrow pierceth the heart, and under the pang and agony of it, his face turned ashy-pale, and the big drops stood upon his brow.
"For," he thought, "suppose that the thing gets abroad; suppose they were to advertise a reward; suppose the man who made the key were to see the advertisement or to hear about it! And he knows my name, too, and my business; and he'll let out for a reward--I know he will--who it was ordered that key of him." Already he saw himself examined before a magistrate; already he saw in imagination that locksmith's man who made the key kissing the Testament, and giving his testimony in clear and distinct words, which could not be shaken.
"Oh, Lord! oh, Lord!" he groaned.

"No one will believe me, even if I do confess the truth: and as for him, I know him well; if I go to him, he'll only laugh at me.

But I must go to him--I must!" He was so goaded by his terror that he left the shop unprotected--a thing he had never thought to do--and ran as fast as he could to Joe's lodgings.