The jeweler had to admit that Perce had made some such request; which the boy hastened to explain. “I said all that; and I was going to say more. I didn’t want anybody to see it until it was advertised, and until the owner proved his claim by giving a description of it.” “Ah, very wise, indeed! and very plausible! But how did the watch get into the seaweed, without help from somebody?” returned Hatville. “This boy, as it happens, is the only person who had a chance to take it. Now, young fellow, your best course is to own right up. Weren’t you in my room, at Mrs. Murcher’s, last night, and again this morning?” “I don’t know anything about your room,” Perce replied. “I went through the upper entry to Olly’s room, last evening; but that was the only room I looked into. This morning I went into some gentleman’s room—I don’t know whose—to get a view from the window, while the ladies were hunting for a spy-glass; but I saw no watch there, and I didn’t touch a thing.” “Besides, if you notice,” Mr. Middleton remarked, “this watch—to be more than eight hours slow, as you see it is, and still going—must have been in the water considerably more than eight hours.” The argument seemed to strike Mr. Hatville forcibly. But a moment’s reflection enabled him to put it easily aside. “It had probably run down,” he said; “and the boy has wound it since.” “Why! I haven’t any key!” Perce exclaimed. “And you didn’t know it was a stem-winder?” said the owner, with incredulous irony. Perce said, very truly, that he hadn’t examined it sufficiently to discover that fact; he had heard of stem-winders, but had never before seen one. Mr. Hatville smiled again. “I can’t yet feel quite so sure of this boy’s honesty as you seem to, Mr. Middleton,” he said. “There are some things that need to be explained: how the watch got out of my room and into the sea, in the first place; and how the chain was broken.” “If I meant to steal it, why should I break the chain?” Perce demanded. “I don’t know your motive; perhaps because you saw my monogram on the seal. Come, my boy,” said Mr. Hatville; “come and show me just where and how you found it.” So saying, he left the watch in the jeweler’s hands, and started to return with Perce to the scene of the kelp-gathering. CHAPTER XIX. THE MISSING LINKS. On the way, Perce Bucklin’s spirits did not rise, as a perfectly truthful boy’s spirits might have been expected to do, under the circumstances. He had already felt, with some uneasiness of conscience, that his disingenuous treatment of his partners in the kelp-gathering was unworthy of the son of so upright a father. But he was now appalled by the thought of what might be the consequences of his conduct. As they walked down the road together, Mr. Hatville asked: “Was anybody with you on the beach when you found the watch?”