“I’ll tell you all I know about it; and I know more than you think I do,” replied Wade, looking Matt sharp in the eye. “You lied to your mother when you told her I stole the peaches; and she sent me to bed without any supper. I was so confounded hungry that I could not go to sleep; and I got up, and went down to the buttery to get something to eat. I was in there when you got up in that chair, and took the money out of that closet over the mantle-piece.” “What money?” asked Matt, turning pale, and trembling with terror. “I guess you know what money as well as I do. The money that was in the closet. You stole it, and then cleared out.” “Do you mean to say that I stole any money, Wade Brooks?” demanded Matt, making a lame attempt to bluster, which was a failure. “That’s just what I mean to say, and I do say it. It’s no use to deny it.” “Let him go on,” added Lon, in a low tone. “I deny that I took any money from any closet,” said Matt; “but go on with your story.” “I guess I could prove that you did it, right here, if I had a mind to,” added Wade. He was tempted to do so, and to take the money from his pocket as evidence of what he asserted; but just then it came into his mind, that, if Matt knew he had it, he would say he stole it; and, if he went back to Midhampton, the possession of the two hundred dollars might be evidence that he did steal it. If he told Mrs. Swikes that her son took the wallet, she would not believe him. Wade concluded not to say just yet that he had the plunder. “I don’t see what all this has to do with sleeping in the boat.” “That’s what I was going to tell you when you broke in on me. After you took the money, your father came out of the room. Your mother said she heard somebody in the house, and told your father to see if the money in the closet was all right. He felt in the closet, and found that it was gone. In that house they always lay every thing to me, and your mother said I must have taken it.” “If any money was taken, I guess you did,” interposed Matt; and, if he was caught, he could lay it to him with a full knowledge of the case. “You know better, Matt Swikes; but no matter now. Your father went up to the garret, and found I was not there. Then they were sure I took the money. I’d been licked once that day for what I didn’t do, and I couldn’t stand it again. Just then the fire broke out, and your father and mother went out of the house; and I hooked it out, and after a while went down to the boat to sleep. I meant to call on Mr. Garlick this morning, and tell him what I knew about matters and things in general. That’s why I slept in the boat.” CHAPTER IX. CAUGHT IN THE ACT. Matt looked at Lon, and Lon looked at Matt. There was a general looking at each other in the boat. “Now I’ve told you why I slept in the boat, maybe you will tell me, Matt, how you happened to be sailing in the ‘Mud-turtle’ so late in the night,” said Wade Brooks.