killed me!" he spluttered. "I ain't got no breath left in my
body."

"Small loss if ye hain't!" retorted William. "What's he ben doin',
gals?" William never _would_ say "young ladies," which distressed Miss
Russell; but he was _so_ valuable, as she said.

"Stealing!" said Peggy, briefly. "I met him coming out of one of the
rooms."

"I snum!" said William. "You're a nice kind o' harmonium, ben't ye? Tu'n
out yer pockets!"

"She sot down on my head!" muttered the man. "Somethin' come up out o'
the ground at me and knocked me down, and then she sot down on my head.
I'm 'most killed, I tell ye!"

"Well, who cares if ye be?" replied William, with some irritation. "It's
a pity she didn't finish the job, that's all I've got to say. Tu'n out
yer pockets, will ye?"

The man obeyed unwillingly, still muttering; and out came a mass of
lockets, pins, and chains, enough, in spite of those he had thrown away,
to furnish half the girls in the school.

After searching to see the surrender was complete, William adjured the
next-door neighbour, a stout and silent person named Simpson, who had
been standing by, to "take t'other arm, and we'll walk him down to the
lock-up jest as easy!" The thief begged and prayed, and, finding that
useless, took to cursing and swearing; whereupon William and Mr. Simpson
marched him off in short order, and all three disappeared around the
turn leading to the High Street.

The school was left standing in the road, still panting with haste and
excitement. They had been silent during William's colloquy with the man,
but now the strings of their tongues were loosened, and the flood of
speech broke loose.

"My dear!"

"My _dear_! I never was so excited in my life, were you?"

"Where did he come from?"

"Who saw him first?"

"Why, Peggy Montfort, of course! Didn't you see her?"

"No; I just ran, because every one else was--"

"Perfectly distracted! I never heard of such a thing."

"He was in the closet--"

"No; he was on the stairs--"

"Just getting out of the window--"

"With just her bare hands, I tell you. Just took a--"

"Pair of earrings, nothing else in the world."

"But who was he--where did he come from? What does Peggy say about it?"

"Girls! _girls_!" cried Miss Cortlandt. "Will you please be silent for a
moment? Peggy has not had a chance to say a word yet, and I for one want
to hear her story. Have you got your breath yet, Peggy? because we all
want to hear, very much i