Then Warren stooped and picked up the note, for it still lay there, and every one seemed too bewildered to move—and he held it out to Ralph.
"Rexworth," he said, in low, grave tones, "this was in your pocket-book. It don't want much talking about, you can see what it looks like against you. But I want to say, and I feel that I must say it, I cannot believe that a chap like you can really be guilty of such a horribly mean thing. You and I have been good chums, and if any one had asked me my opinion, I should have said that there was no chap in the school I could more honour and trust. But this thing has got to be explained, and I must do my duty as a monitor, even if it gets my best chum into trouble. I must tell the Head of this. If I did not, some one else would, and it is my duty to do it."
"You don't think that I stole it," faltered Ralph. It seemed so horrible that it unnerved him, and made him lose his firm resolution for the moment. It would be only for a little while: presently the old grit would come back, and he would be firm enough. But the greatest may flinch for the moment—recoiling from the horror of the accusation or suspicion—and others may put down their agitation to a wrong cause, think it the evidence of a guilty conscience, and condemn them untried.
"You don't think that I stole it?" he faltered, as if pleading that Warren would not think so poorly as that of him. But the monitor replied gravely:
"I don't think anything about it, Rexworth. I don't want to think, for if I did, I should think wrong, perhaps. I can only act on the thing as I know it. You lost your pocket-book, you said. You were in a terrible mess over the loss. You, yourself, said to me that you hoped no one would look inside it if they picked it up; and I, with my own eyes, saw this note fall out of it just now, the note I suppose Mr. Delermain lost, and which you declared that you had not seen. I must tell the Head. I only wish that it were not part of my work to have to do so."
Then the old resolution came back. Ralph's self had not deserted him, and he spoke, quietly and calmly, so that all the dormitory could hear his troubled tones.
"Thank you, Warren. I value your friendship, which makes doing your duty so hard a thing for you, and I quite understand that you cannot give me that friendship now, while this thing is over me. I know it looks very bad against me. I have some enemy here, and that enemy has been just a little too clever for me."
Just as he spoke his eyes caught sight of Charlton, standing looking so white and scared, and the thought came: Had he done this? He seemed to avoid his gaze. Ralph paused only a moment, and then went on—