CHAPTER XXVII

STOCKLEY'S STORY (CONTINUED)

"I've been thinking," said Stockley, at length breaking the silence. "I've been thinking that if I had known last Christmas what you have told me now things might have happened very differently. I guess I am not the only fellow who has seen hard lines here. Yes, things would have been different."

"How so?" asked Henning.

"It's this way. I told you that it was your gold watch that was the cause--or the occasion--of all the trouble that came to you. It happened this way. For some time before Christmas I envied you, your good clothes, this gold watch, and--and your popularity. Along by Christmas my father neglected me. He sent me no money, which he might easily have done had he given me one thought. The more nearly broke I was at holiday time the deeper my envy. I knew, for I watched you closely, that you were collecting a pretty sum for the cage. I saw where you kept the money. The idea of securing a gold watch for myself took strong hold upon me. It did not take long or many attempts to loosen one of the outside window bars. Then on the _Richelieu_ night when everybody was full of thoughts of the play, when the prefects were hurrying the boys to bed, I entered through the window and secured the money."

"And it wasn't--it wasn't--" Roy choked up.

"Who? It wasn't anybody but myself. Smithers had no hand in it then."

Roy Henning's heart gave a great bound of relief. It was not his cousin, after all. Thank God, thank God! The family honor was saved! How glad he was now of his silence! Was ever silence so golden? What irretrievable damage a hasty word could have done. The thief known, on his own confession, and before witnesses. His cousin exonerated! Thank God, thank God! Of course Roy was curious now to know all the details and it was with the utmost difficulty that he restrained his excitement sufficiently to be able to speak in a natural tone.

"How did you manage to do it?"

"Umph! This information which you have been seeking for the last five months does not seem to affect you much."

"With that we can deal later. Now I am curious to know how you did it. Please tell me."

"As you take the matter so coolly, I will. I laid my plans well. I determined, if caught in lifting the grating, to be hunting for a ball, which I had previously dropped down there. I watched my time. I made the entry while the boys were in the chapel at night prayers. I settled with myself that if I were caught coming out, to bring the money to you to prove to you how foolish you were to leave it in a common table drawer. In the dark it took only a minute to lift the grating. You know that it is thick iron with small holes. Three boys did actually walk over the grating that night while I was crouching beneath it with the money in my pocket."

Henning startled both Stockley and his companions by saying, dramatically:

"I saw you that night there."

"What, you saw me! Oh, I say, that's a likely story--and didn't say a word all this time!"

"I can prove it."

"How?"

"Why did you wear Garrett's blue sweater?"

"Guess you did see me then, for I wore it. I wanted a disguise. If any one saw me near that window with Garrett's sweater on they would take me for him, provided I hid my face well--which I did. No one would suspect Garrett of thieving."

Again Henning was thankful that he had kept his resolution of silence. It was not for Garrett's sake he had made it. Why it was made, and kept in the face of such suspicious circumstances, the reader will learn ere long.

"Did you purchase the gold watch you wanted with your--your ill-gotten gains?"

"I did not. I was afraid to do so. I saw at once if I did I should compromise myself. I saw that I should have to tell where I got the money for such a purpose. Everybody, and especially the faculty, knew that I did not have overmuch pocket-money. My common-sense, after all, told me I could not use the money here. So I made myself a felon for nothing. What is left--most of it--is now with the President."

Stockley paused a minute, and then continued:

"Don't think this is an easy task for me, boys. I promised the chaplain to straighten things out, and as you had to have the essentials, you might as well have the details also. I shall never face the boys again, for as soon as I can be moved I am to be sent home. Anyway, Henning, I like the way you received the story."

"I am very thankful to you that you make it so clear and circumstantial."

"You remember in the early spring there was a good deal of money spent by the boys. If I remember rightly you yourself bought a number of books, bats, balls, and shoes. Well, at that time I ventured to spend some, but I was horribly suspicious all the time. Somehow I imagined that every dollar I spent was marked in some invisible way and would be traced back to me. No, I tell you that has done me no good, given me not one moment of satisfaction, and has only added an extra burden to my conscience."

"Did Smithers have a hand in this thievery?" asked Roy.

"Leave others out. You said that to me just now, and now you are trying to get some one else incriminated."

"No, I am not. I am merely acting in self-defense. You have cleared me of all suspicion. I must, if he was implicated in this wretched affair, have him clear me also."

"You need not bother about Smithers," said Bracebridge; "that charming and courageous individual departed for unknown pastures between two suns. You will see him no more. The boys say he is daffy on account of the storm. Let it go at that, Roy."

Henning was surprised at this news, but not altogether pleased. Matters had thus far gone so propitiously that he wanted every knot in the tangle straightened out.

"That's all right, Roy," said Bracebridge. "There will be no more trouble from that quarter." He then turned to Stockley, saying:

"I must say that we are obliged to you for your candor. It is rather a manly acknowledgment after all."

"You see, I went to confession last night, and----"

"I understand. You are properly trying to undo the wrong you have done. You will never be able to undo the mental torture you have inflicted on Henning all these months."

"I never shall. I am sorry for all that now, and I ask your pardon, Henning."

The three boys were discovering that there was something manly in Stockley after all.

"That's all right," said Roy heartily. "It's all over now. Try and keep straight for the future."

"Now," said Bracebridge, "there is only one thing more to be done. Of course you will sign a paper exonerating Henning from all possible implication, now you have acknowledged your own guilt. Our word as witnesses would be sufficient, but it would come with better grace from you, don't you think so?"

"There's not much gracefulness in the whole wretched business, I'm thinking, but I'll sign."

That afternoon, with the permission of the prefect, there was posted on the bulletin board a notice which created more intense excitement than anything since the loss of the money during the Christmas holidays. It ran as follows:

"This is to certify that I, of my own free will and without coercion, admit that I stole the seventy-two dollars last Christmas week, and that no one now at the college had the least thing to do with planning or carrying out the theft except myself."

"JOHN STOCKLEY."