nd then you go
on as if you guessed it yourself! You ain't got as much learnin' as you
think, governor."

"But was it his knife he left behind?" inquired Riddell, too eager to
attend to the sarcasms of his companion.

"What could it 'a been, unless it might be a razor. You don't cut ropes
with your thumb-nails, do you? Of course it was his knife."

"And have you got it still, Tom?"

Here Tom began to get shy. As long as it was only information that the
captain wanted to get at he didn't so much mind being cross-examined,
but directly it looked as if his knife was in peril he bristled up.

"That'll do," said he gruffly; "my knife's nothink to do with you."

"I know it isn't, and I don't want to take it from you. I only want to
look at it."

"Oh, yes; all very fine. And you mean to make out as it's yourn and you
was the chap I saw hoppin' out of the winder, do yer? I know better.
He weren't your cut, so you needn't try to make that out."

"Of course it wasn't I," said Riddell, horrified even at the bare
suspicion, still more at the idea of any one confessing to such a crime
for the sake of getting a paltry knife.

Still Tom was obdurate and would not produce his treasure. In vain
Riddell assured him that he made no claim to it, and, even if the knife
were his own, would not dream of depriving the boy of it now. Tom
listened to it all with an incredulous scowl, and Riddell was beginning
to despair of ever setting eyes on the knife, when the boy solved the
difficulty of his own accord.

"What do you want to look at it for?" he demanded. "Only to see if I
knew whose it was once."

"Well, I ain't a-goin' to let yer see it unless you lay a half-a-crown
down on that there seat. There! I ain't a-going to be done by you or
any of your scholars."

Riddell gladly put down the money and had the satisfaction at last of
seeing Tom fumble in his pockets for the precious weapon.

It was a long time coming to light, and meanwhile the boy kept a
suspicious eye on the money, evidently not quite sure whether, after
all, he was safe.

At length from the deepest depth of his trouser pocket his hand emerged,
bringing with it the knife.

Had Tom not been so intent on the half-crown which lay on the seat he
would have been amazed at the sudden pallor which overspread the
captain's face and the half-suppressed gasp which he gave as his eyes
fell on--_young Wyndham's knife_!

There was no mistaking it. Riddell kne