“We’ll not go to the beach now,” said Mr. Hatville, “since your friends can’t say anything to help you. I don’t see why I brought you away from the village, anyway. But never mind; we can trudge back there. And we’ll go to Mrs. Murcher’s first—now that we are so far on our way.” Harsh as had been his treatment of a supposed culprit, under what seemed to him very great provocation, Mr. Hatville couldn’t help pitying the boy a little; and, now that his anger was cooled, he wished to reflect before deciding to turn so youthful an offender over to the officers of the law. [Illustration: “‘HERE THEY ARE!’ SAID OLLY, AS HE HELD OUT THE EVIDENCE AGAINST HIMSELF.”] He kept Perce by his side as he mounted the piazza steps. “Yes, I’ve found him, and my watch, too,” he said to the boarders, who came out to hear the news. “It was in his possession.” Glad as they were to hear of his good fortune, nothing but painful surprise and commiseration was expressed in the womanly and girlish faces that looked upon the unhappy boy. “Oh, then! what shall we do with the money?” sighed Mrs. Merriman. Whereupon it came out that the friends of Olly Burdeen had subscribed a small collection, to reward his rescuers. But, could they bestow it upon such a boy as this one had shown himself to be? “Give it to the others!” cried Perce passionately. “I don’t want any pay for what I did. No, nor for saving this man’s watch, either,—though I don’t think I ought to be treated this way, as if I had stolen it.” “Does he deny it?” cried Amy Canfield, eagerly. “Oh, of course!” replied Mr. Hatville. “Of course I do!” Perce exclaimed, raising his voice in vehement protestation. “I found it in the seaweed, on the beach. But he won’t believe a word I say!” And he stood defiant, desperate, his eyes flashing through tears. The most tender-hearted of the lady boarders couldn’t blame Mr. Hatville for declining to accept such a story as that. But just then another actor in the drama rushed upon the scene. It was Olly Burdeen, himself, in his old clothes, his hair tumbled, his eyes excited, his voice choking as he tried to speak. “The watch?” he gasped out. “He isn’t to blame! I—I took it!” In his room, at the end of the corridor above, he had overheard enough to know that the watch was found, and that Perce was in trouble. Equally excited by the good news and the bad, he had obeyed an impulse of generosity and gratitude, and hastened to the defense of the friend to whom he owed his recent rescue. But, strange to say, nobody believed him! He was delirious; he was telling a noble untruth; he was sacrificing himself for one to whom he fancied that he owed his life. Everybody believed implicitly in Olly; nobody believed in Perce. Only Mr. Hatville, whose mind had reverted more than once to Olly, while considering the other’s strange story, listened carefully, thinking that the clew to the mystery might at last be coming. “How is that, Olly?” he asked.