Ned Sanker was looking towards the door as he spoke. Two of them were coming in, who must have arrived at the same time--Vale and Lacketer. They were new ones, so to say, both having entered only last Easter. Vale was a tall, quiet fellow, with a fair, good-looking face and mild blue eyes; his friends lived at Vale Farm, about two miles off. Lacketer had sleek black hair, and a sharp nose; he had only an aunt, and was from Oxfordshire. I didn't like him. He had a way of cringing to those of us who were born to position in the world; but any poor friendless chap, who had nothing but himself and his work to get on by, he put upon shamefully. As for him, we couldn't find out that he'd ever had any relations at all, except the aunt. I looked at Sanker, to see which he alluded to; his eyes were fixed on Vale with a stare. Vale had not been going to leave, that the school knew of. "Why are you surprised that he has come back, Sanker?" "Because I--didn't suppose he _would_," said Sanker, with a pause where I have put it, and an uncommonly strong emphasis on the "would." It was just as though he had known something about Vale. Flashing across my memory came the mysterious avowal Sanker had made at our house about the discovery of the thief at school; and I now connected the one with the other. They call me a muff, I know, but I cannot help my thoughts. "Sanker! was _he_ the thief?" "Hold your tongue, Ludlow," returned Sanker, in a fright. "I told you I'd give him a chance again, didn't I? But I never thought he would come back to take it." "I would have believed it of any fellow rather than of Vale." Sanker turned his face sharp, and looked at me. "Oh, would you?" said he, after a pause. "Well, then, you'd _better_ believe it of any other. Mind you do. It will be safer, Johnny Ludlow." He walked away into a group of them, as if afraid of my saying more. I turned out at the door leading to the playground, and came upon Tod in the porch. "What was that you and Sanker were saying about Vale, Johnny?" I was aware that I ought not to tell him; I knew I ought not: but I _did_. Tod read me always as one reads a book, and I had never attempted to keep from him any earthly thing. "Sanker says it was Vale. About the things lost last half. He told me, you know, that he had discovered who it was that took them." "What, he the thief! Vale?" "Hush, Tod. Give him another chance, as Sanker says." Tod rushed out of the porch with a bound. He had heard a movement on the other side the trellis-work, but was only in time to catch a glimpse of a tassel disappearing round the corner.