The case against Ben Stone broke down right there. Lawyer Frances held a hurried consultation with Lemuel Hayden and his son, and on his advice the charge against Ben was withdrawn and Stone was dismissed, exonerated.

The demonstration which followed was remarkable. People crowded around Ben and Jerry and insisted on shaking the former’s hand and telling him how pleased they were because his innocence had been established. His schoolmates thumped him on the back and would have carried him on their shoulders from the hall had he not fought against it. Mrs. Jones forced her way through the crowd, with Jimmy hobbling on his crutches behind her, and, sobbing her joy, clasped Ben in her arms.

“I knowed he wa’n’t no thief!” she cried happily. “Nobody that could be good as he was to a little lame boy would steal. You’ve had a heap of troubles, Ben, but they’re all over now. I don’t s’pose y’u have et anything since y’u was locked up; but I cal’lated you’d git off, an’ I’ve got Sadie tendin’ a big roast, an’ we’ll have a feed that’ll give y’u injunjesshun, which I guess y’u can stand once if Joel, my late departed, could endure it all his born days. Land! but I’m so happy I feel like cryin’ my eyes out.”

“With your permission, madam,” said Henry Bailey, “I would like to accompany these two lads to your house, having a matter of great importance to talk over with them.”

“Come right along, mister,” invited the widow. “There’ll be plenty of vittles for y’u, too.”

Mr. Bailey was not the only one who accompanied them. Leaving the courtroom, Ben and Jerry were escorted by a triumphal procession all the way to Mrs. Jones’ gate, where twenty boys cheered the acquitted lad, who paused upon the steps to look back at them, his plain face illumined by an expression of joy which made it seem actually comely.

“Thank you, fellows,” he said, holding out his open hands to them. “It’s good of you, and I’ll never forget it.”

Sleuth Piper started to make a speech.

“My deduction was——” he began.

“Your deduction was all right, Sleuth,” laughed Roger Eliot, giving him a slap on the shoulder. “You’ve established your reputation as the greatest detective of modern times, Sherlock Holmes not excepted.”

Even after the house was entered those boys were heard cheering for Stone as they marched back into the village.

“Set right down, everybody,” invited the widow. “Make yourselves to home while I take a look at the roast an’ git the potatoes to bakin’.”

“It is very fortunate, boys,” said Henry Bailey, “that this affair terminated as well as it did. This is my first opportunity to talk with you both together, and I’ll tell you now that much more good fortune is in store for you. Jerry put himself to needless trouble by running away ere his uncle’s will was read; for in that will, which was drawn up barely two months before Asher Rand’s death, and which was found in Mr. Rand’s small private safe, a legacy was left to you both—a legacy that will place you beyond need.

“It seems that your father, in those years while he worked so privately in his home, was engaged upon a very clever invention, which he had practically perfected at the time of his unfortunate arrest. That invention fell into the hands of Asher Rand, who, on learning its value, was sorely tempted and kept its existence a secret, finally disposing of it to a concern that pays a royalty upon it of three thousand dollars yearly. Your uncle’s conscience must have been pricked to a point which led him to draw up that last will, in which he provides that the income from this invention shall be divided equally between you both.

“But since Mr. Rand’s death there have been disclosures of still greater importance. Nathan Driggs, the man who caused all your father’s trouble and calamitous misfortune, has been ill for some months, and recently he passed away. Ere he died, being satisfied beyond doubt that there was no hope for him, he made a confession which fully exonerates your father and clears his name of the stigma upon it. Driggs confessed that your father’s testimony concerning him at the trial was absolutely true—that he did bring the packages of dies for making counterfeit money to your father, and, having deceived him regarding the contents of those packages, induced him to conceal them in his house, where they were found. Therefore Abner Stone was unjustly convicted of the crime and died an innocent man through the effects of the wound he received while trying to escape from prison.”

All this was so marvelous that it left the two boys breathless.

The widow had listened with speechless delight; and now, her eyes again filled with tears of joy, she cried:

“Lands to mercy! Now ain’t that jest amazin’! Here I’ve been entertainin’ under my roof a couple of heirs to wealth! Three thousand dollars! Fifteen hundred dollars apiece! Why, it puts y’u both beyond the touch of the tooth of avarice. I guess folks ’round this town will set up an’ take notice when they hear about it.”

Ben gave his blind brother a hug. Everybody laughed. The little yellow dog, sitting on his haunches and gazing at them, barked sharply, then, with his mouth open, wrinkled his nose and bobbed his tongue.

“Look,” cried Jimmy—“look at Pilot! He’s laughing, too.”

Every cloud was gone from the sky, swept away to return no more. Ben Stone, whose appearance in Oakdale had been so unfavorable, whose days there had been so filled with trouble and strife, found himself the hero of the village and the coveted friend of those lads who had once regarded him with doubt and aversion. When he and Jerry and Pilot departed, with Henry Bailey, who took the boys away until such time as Asher Rand’s affairs should be definitely settled and a guardian appointed for them, nearly every lad in the village, together with a number of the girls and not a few of the older citizens, accompanied them to the railway station.

“Ben,” said Roger Eliot, speaking for the party on the station platform, “we’re proud of you, and we hate to see you leave us. We need you on the eleven. It’s too bad you’re going away now.”

“My deduction is,” interrupted Sleuth Piper, “that he will come back.”

“Yes, boys,” promised Ben, with his hand grasping the iron rail of the passenger coach, “I shall come back if I can. I have talked about it with Mr. Bailey, and he thinks there will be no trouble in making the arrangements. I have had something of a scramble in Oakdale, but I like the place; for here at last I have found more friends that I ever knew before. Oh, yes, I’m coming back if I can.”

Then the train bore him away.

He did come back. In less than two weeks he returned to finish his course at the academy, stopping, as before, at the home of the Widow Jones, but now having the best room in the house.