to arrest him.
I guess Dick St. Claire won't think him the nicest boy in town now. The
thief! I'd like--

But what he would like was never known, for with a spring Arthur bounded
toward him, and seizing him by the coat collar, shook him vigorously,
while he exclaimed:

'Coward and liar! Harold Hastings is not a thief! No child of Amy
Crawford could ever be a thief, and if you say that again, or even
insinuate it to any living being, I'll break every bone in your body. Do
you understand?'

'Yes, sir; no sir, I won't; I won't,' Tom gasped, as well as he could,
with his head bobbing forward and back so rapidly that his teeth cut
into his under lip.

'But _I_ shall,' Peterkin roared. 'I'll have the young dog arrested,
too, if he don't own up and give up.'

There was a wicked look in Arthur's black eyes, which he fastened upon
Peterkin, as he said;

'What does it all mean, sir? Will you please explain?'

'Yes, in double quick time,' replied Peterkin, a little nettled by
Arthur's manner, which he could not understand. 'You see, me and Mary
Jane was early to the doin's; fust ones, in fact, for when your invite
says half past seven it means it, I take it. Wall, we was here on time,
and Mary Jane has been on a tear ever since, and says Miss St. Claire
nor none of the big bugs didn't come till nine, which I take is
imperlite, don't you?'

'Never mind, we are not discussing etiquette. Go on with the pin and the
boy,' Arthur said haughtily.

'Mary Jane,' Peterkin continued, 'had a gold-headed shawl pin, with a
small diamond in the head--real, too, for I don't b'lieve in shams, and
haint sense the day I quit boatin' and hauled ther 'Liza Ann up inter my
back yard. Well, she left this pin stickin' in her shawl, and no one up
there but this boy of that Crawford gal's, and nobody knows who else.'

Something in Arthur's face and manner made Frank think of a tiger about
to pounce upon its prey, and he felt himself growing cold with suspense
and dread as he watched his brother, while Peterkin continued:

'When Mary Jane came to go home, her things wa'n't there, and the pin
was missin'; and Lucy, the girl, said she found the boy pullin' them
over by himself, when he had no call to be in there; and, sir, there
ain't a lawyer in the United States that would refuse a writ on that
evidence, and I'll get one of St. Claire afore to-morrow night. I told
'em so, the widder and the boy, who was as brassy as you please, and
faced me d