"James Green! Henry Tinkle!" cried Kesterway.
And the two small chums jumped up eagerly.
"Explain how you became possessed of this crib," said the Head.
Green spoke first, and Tinkle backed him up, and then a low angry hiss rang through the school, and Horace Elgert turned a pair of anxious, frightened eyes towards his companions.
"Do you deny this story, Elgert?" asked the Head sternly.
And the boy was silent. If those two juniors had picked up his book, had they picked up anything else?
"There was a banknote missing some time ago," the Head went on. "You may remember that a note was found in Rexworth's pocket-book, and I showed how he had been the victim of a plot. The banknote that was stolen was never discovered; but I now know that it was changed by you, Dobson, at a low cake shop in the town, and that afterwards it was bought back by you and Elgert from that man for far more than it was worth. That note, Elgert, you destroyed yesterday by burning it, and here are the ashes." And the Head produced the filmy ash still lying in Tom Brown's Schooldays. "But that note had been photographed, and you purchased the negative by giving to the person who held it a pocket-book which you had previously taken from him. The negative you also threw into the river, and the person you were with threw in the book which you had just restored to him. Do you deny these statements?"
Still Elgert did not answer. He felt hot and cold by turns. He did not know where to turn his eyes. It was no use denying in the face of such proof.
"You cannot answer!" the Head went on. "You, Dobson, what do you know of this?"
"Oh—oh—oh!" yelled Dobson, clasping his hands, and falling upon his knees. "Oh, forgive me, sir! Oh, I will own up, sir! It was all Elgert's fault. He made me do it, sir! I never wanted to do it, sir! It is all true, every bit of it, sir! Oh——"