simple enough in their meaning, but
Teeny-bits had to read them twice before he completely grasped their
import. There were two sentences:

Holbrook has the things that were stolen from the dormitories. He
keeps them hidden under the floor in his closet.

Teeny-bits' face became red with anger and mortification; he looked
Doctor Wells squarely in the eyes and said:

"Whoever sent you this, sir, wrote a lie! He didn't dare to sign his
name!"

Doctor Wells never took his eyes from Teeny-bits' face, but the
expression in them underwent a slight change; it was as if he had been
looking for something that he greatly wanted to see--and suddenly had
seen it.

"I believe in you, Holbrook," he said. "And I want you to know that I
sympathize with you as I would with any one else against whose honesty a
cowardly assault has been made. One has to defend himself sturdily
against such underhand attacks. Have you any enemies who might try to
injure you in this way?"

"I don't know; I shouldn't think that any one in _this_ school would be
mean enough to do it. Doctor Wells, I want you to come over to my room
now, and let me prove that it's a lie."

"I'll be glad to," said the Head, "but we might as well wait a few
minutes until the lights-out bell rings. We don't need to advertise our
business to any of the fellows in Gannett Hall."

For fifteen minutes Teeny-bits sat in the study with Doctor Wells; he
never remembered in detail what they talked about, but he had a vague
memory that it concerned football and the game with Jefferson.

Gannett Hall was dark and quiet when the Head and the newcomer to the
school stole softly up the stairs and stopped at Number 34 on the third
floor. Teeny-bits unlocked the door, reached in to switch on the
electric lights and stood aside to let Doctor Wells enter first. He
followed and led the way directly to the closet where he kept his
clothes. Swinging open the door he looked down.

At first glance it seemed that the boards were not in any way disturbed
from their normal appearance, and Teeny-bits was about to speak when his
eyes fell on a groove at the point where the ends of two boards came
together. He had not for an instant supposed that he and Doctor Wells
would discover anything in the closet, but now suddenly a great fear
came over him.

"There's a mark on this board," he said, getting down closer, "and the
nails have been pulled out."

A minute or two later Teeny-bits