_Old M._ _If_ I tell the truth—(_turning up his eyes_). (_Old Man is still held back by the young lady_.) _Lucy_. One moment—answer me one question—because of something that just came into my head. Was the box shut fast when you left it? _Old M._ No, miss, no!—open—it was open; for I could not find the lid in the dark—my candle went out. _If_ I tell the truth—oh! (_Exit_.) SCENE IV. _Justice’s Study_—_the Justice is writing_. _Old M._ Well!—I shall have but few days’ more misery in this world! _Just._ (_looks up_). Why! why—why then, why will you be so positive to persist in a lie? Take the money and leave the box! Obstinate blockhead! Here, William (_showing the committal_), take this old gentleman to Holdfast, the constable, and give him this warrant. _Enter_ LUCY, _running_, _out of breath_. _Lucy_. I’ve found it! I’ve found it! Here, old man; here’s your money—here it is all—a guinea and a half, and a shilling and a sixpence, just as he said, papa. _Enter_ LANDLADY. _Land._ Oh la! your worship, did you ever hear the like? _Just._ I’ve heard nothing yet that I can understand. First, have you secured the thief, I say? _Lucy_ (_makes signs to the landlady to be silent_). Yes, yes, yes!—we have him safe—we have him prisoner. Shall he come in, papa? _Just._ Yes, child, by all means; and now I shall hear what possessed him to leave the box. I don’t understand—there’s something deep in all this; I don’t understand it. Now I do desire, Mrs. Landlady, nobody may speak a single word whilst I am cross-examining the thief. (_Landlady puts her finger upon her lips_—_Everybody looks eagerly towards the door_.) _Re-enter_ LUCY, _with a huge wicker cage in her hand_, _containing a magpie_—_The Justice drops the committal out of his hand_. _Just._ Hey!—what, Mrs. Landlady—the old magpie? hey? _Land._ Ay, your worship, my old magpie. Who’d have thought it? Miss was very clever; it was she caught the thief. Miss was very clever. _Old M._ Very good! very good! _Just._ Ay, darling, her father’s own child! How was it, child? Caught the thief, _with the mainour_, hey? Tell us all; I will hear all—that’s poz! _Lucy_. Oh! then first I must tell you how I came to suspect Mr. Magpie. Do you remember, papa, that day last summer, when I went with you to the bowling-green, at the “Saracen’s Head”? _Land._ Oh, of all days in the year! but I ask pardon, miss. _Lucy_. Well, that day I heard my uncle and another gentleman telling stories of magpies hiding money; and they laid a wager about this old magpie and they tried him—they put a shilling upon the table, and he ran away with it, and hid it; so I thought that he might do so again, you know, this time.