“I am sorry to tell you that another theft has been committed. A gold pencil case has disappeared from my study table. I was using it after school. I left it on the table when I went for a stroll before dinner. I remember most distinctly laying it down among the pens. I went into my study ten minutes ago; and wanting to make a note as to this afternoon's work looked for the pencil and it was gone. The window was open as usual, and it is possible that tramps passing along the road may have come into the garden and have got in at the window. As in the case of the book I suspect no one, but two such occurrences as these are very uncomfortable for us all. I shall not propose any search this time, for had any of you taken it, which I cannot for a moment believe, he would not have been careless enough to put it in his pocket, or conceal it in his desk or boxes, but would have stowed it away somewhere where there would be no chance whatever of its being found. Now let us dismiss the subject and go on with our lessons.” While the master was speaking Ripon and Sankey had glanced for a moment at each other; the same thought was in both their minds. After school was over they joined each other in the yard. “Was Mather in the washing room with the others?” Sankey asked eagerly. “He was, but he came up last,” Ripon replied. “You know he generally saunters along in a lazy way and is the last to get in. So he was today, but I don't know that he was later than usual.” “I think, Ripon, we ought to speak to Porson.” “I think so too,” Ripon rejoined gravely; “it is too serious to keep to ourselves. Any ordinary thing I would not peach about on any account, but a disgraceful theft like this, which throws a doubt over us all, is another thing; the honor of the whole school is at stake. I have been thinking it over. I don't want Mather to suspect anything, so I will go out at the back gate with you, as if I was going to walk part of the way home with you, and then we will go round to the front door and speak to Porson.” The master was sitting on a low seat in the window of his study. Hearing footsteps coming up from the front gate he looked round. “Do you want to speak to me, boys?” he asked in some surprise through the open window. “What makes you come round the front way?” “We want to see you privately, sir,” Ripon said. “Very well, boys, I will open the door for you. “Now, what is it?” he asked as the boys followed him into the study. “Well, sir, it may be nothing, I am sure I hope so,” Ripon said, “but Sankey and I thought you ought to know and then it will be off our minds, and you can do as you like about it. Now, Sankey, tell what you knew first, then I will tell what Mother Brown said to me on Wednesday.”