After his turn for incarceration in the shoe-cupboard, Bliss complained loudly that it wasn't large enough to accommodate him, and that it cramped his long arms and legs, to say nothing of the unpleasant vicinity of spiders and earwigs. But the others, laughing at him, told him that, if the experiment was to be of any use whatever, they must persevere in it, and Bliss allowed himself to be made a victim. For a time nothing happened, but they had not to wait very long. One day, Kenrick had been mounting guard for about half an hour, and was getting very tired, when a light and hasty step passed along the passage, and into his room. The boy found the study empty, and proceeded noiselessly to open Kenrick's desk, and examine the contents. At length he pulled open the secret drawer; it opened with a little click, and _there_ lay before him two half-sovereigns and some silver. He was a wary fellow, for he scrutinised these all over most carefully to see if they were marked, and finding no mark of any kind on them--for it almost required a microscope to see the tiny scratch between the w.w. on the smooth edge of the neck--he took out his purse, and was proceeding to drop them into it, when _a heavy hand was laid upon his shoulder_, and Kenrick and Wilton--the detected thief--stood face to face. The purse dropped on the floor. For a moment they stood silent, staring at each other, and drawing quick breaths. Wilton stood there pale as death, and looked up at Kenrick trembling, and with a frightened stare. It was too awful to be so suddenly surprised; to have had an unknown eye-witness standing by him all the while that, fancying himself unseen, he was in the very act of committing that secret deed of sin; to be arrested, detected, exposed, as the boy whose hidden misdoings had been, for so long, a source of discomfort, anxiety, and shame. "_You_, Wilton--_you, you, you_, the disturber of the house, _you_, who have so long been treated by me as a friend, and allowed at all times to use my study; _you_, the foremost to throw the suspicion on others!" He stopped, breathless, for his indignation was rushing in too deep and strong a torrent to find vent in words. "O Kenrick, don't tell of me." "Don't _tell_ of you! Good heavens! is that all you can find to say? Not one word of sorrow--not one word of shame. Abandoned, heartless, graceless fellow!" "I was driven to it, Kenrick, indeed I was. I owed money to Dan, and to--to other places, and they threatened to tell of me if I didn't pay. Then Harpour and those fellows quite cleared me out at cards; I believe they did it by cheating. O, don't tell of me." "I cannot screen a thief," was the freezing reply; and the change from flame to ice showed into what commotion his feelings had been thrown.