The Doctor drew it from his pocket as he spoke, and opened it. “I find here various entries, evidently sums of money owing to certain persons. I find here the entry ‘A. D. to R. C.—$5.’ Between these pages is a check on the First National Bank of New Orleans drawn by you in your own favor and endorsed on the back. Do you recollect such a check?” Tony racked his memory, and recalled at last that a week or so before he had given Reggie such a check in payment of a small loan. “I made out such a check; yes, sir.” “To whom did you pay it?” “I decline to tell you, sir.” “What did you pay it for?” “In payment of the sum of five dollars which I had borrowed.” “The boy to whom you paid this will corroborate your statement?” “Possibly, sir—I don’t know. I certainly shan’t ask him to. I am accustomed to tell the truth.” “You decline then to explain to me how this check came to be found in this memorandum-book in the strong-box of that shanty?” “I know nothing about it to explain. I paid the check to a friend. I don’t know how it came to be in the shanty.” “Have you ever played poker in this school?” “No, sir; I have not.” “Could this check have had anything to do with a poker game?” “I don’t know—not so far as I am concerned.” “What do you mean by ‘so far as I am concerned’?” “I mean that I have never played cards for money, or given that check in payment for a gambling debt. As to whether other boys have gambled in the shanty or elsewhere, I do not know. I have nothing to say.” “You have broken bounds repeatedly this term?” “Yes, sir.” “That will do for to-night. You three boys may go to bed now. Report to me to-morrow morning at the Rectory after Chapel. You will not attend recitations or take any part in the school activities until this matter is settled.” The three culprits silently took up their caps and went off to their rooms; Jimmie and Kit, distressed and alarmed for themselves, but even more for Tony; Deering was sullen and angry. Doctor Forester sank back for a moment in his chair and looked helplessly at his master and his prefects. “I don’t think for a moment that that boy is not telling the truth, Morris. But there is the letter, the check, and the memorandum-book. What do you make of it?” “I would stake my life on his honor,” exclaimed Morris generously. “For a moment I doubted him when he was confronted with your evidence; but there is an explanation for it, I am sure. Perhaps we will find it out; perhaps not. But whether we do or not, I would take Deering’s word.”