"There don't seem to be much sport," said Tinkle to Green, as they sat side by side on the river bank, casting longing glances at their floats. Tinkle's bobbed under, and he pulled up sharply—he had hooked a fine piece of weed, the tenth catch of the kind he had made.  
"Bother!" said Green, putting down the landing-net, which he had seized to be in readiness to help his friend. "I am jolly well sick of it. Let us drop it."
 
Tinkle agreed; the rod was taken to pieces and the lines put away, and then the pair stood up.
 
"Ugh—ah-r-r!" sighed Tinkle. "Don't it make you cramped, and—— I say, Green, there's a man coming, and by gum, I believe it's that Elgert's man—the chap we saw in the cake-shop!"
 
"So it is," was Green's answer. "And look how he is sauntering. Perhaps he is going to meet some one."
 
"Let us hide," suggested Tinkle eagerly, "in the old boathouse. We may hear some more secrets."
 
[Pg 269]
 
Green made no objection on the score of eavesdropping; the two boys, bending low, darted across the towing-path, and into an old, dilapidated, wooden building, now fast falling to decay, that had once done duty as a boathouse.
 
"Oh, I say, here comes Elgert himself!" said Green excitedly, peeping through a hole. "Don't make a sound. I believe——"
 
"Oh," interrupted Tinkle, in consternation, "they are coming in here! Oh, what ever shall we do?"
 
"Be quiet, you silly. Hide! Down you go flat under that old boat. Hold up the end while I creep under; and whatever you do, don't sneeze. Mind the net, and——"
 
His words were cut short by the boat slipping from Tinkle's hands and extinguishing them both. They lay side by side. They were quite safe, for it was most unlikely that Elgert or the man would look beneath it.
 
One of the planks had started, and they could hear plainly, and even see a good deal of the interior of the place. They did see—saw Elgert and the man enter; and Horace Elgert sat down on the top of that boat.
 
"If I only had a pin!" muttered Green. And Tinkle dug him in the ribs and breathed in his ear—
 
"Be quiet, or I will punch your head when I get you out!"
 
"You are an impertinent rascal!" was Elgert's[Pg 270] first polite remark. "But don't you forget the book I have, with the confession in it. It may get you into trouble yet."
 
"And don't you forget, Mr. Horace, that it was your own father who put me up to it. He wanted Charlton got out of the way, and he showed me how to make a hundred pounds for myself, and make an innocent man get the blame. I haven't had a single day's peace of mind since. My conscience has accused me."
 
"Your conscience! Where do you keep it?" laughed Elgert, while the ears of the two hidden boys were strained to their utmost. "A pretty sort of fellow you are. My father put you up to it! How can you prove that?"
 
"I cannot," was the sulky answer. "He was too clever for that. I wrote the truth in my pocket-book——"
 
"Like the ass you are! What good would that do to you, or to Charlton?"
 
"It did no good. But it made me feel better, even to confess it like that. You stole the book—you, a fine gentleman! You stole it from my coat!"
 
"Yes; it was safer in my keeping than in yours. Such things are dangerous if they are left lying about."
 
"And you have used it as a threat to me ever since; and have ordered me about as if I were a dog!" was the angry retort. And Elgert laughed.
 
[Pg 271]
 
"I have found it useful certainly. And, my man, do you see that scar on the back of your hand? It was a bad cut, I think. How did you manage it?"
 
The man, with a swift motion, put his hand in his pocket.
 
"I cut it," he said. And Elgert laughed again.
 
"Yes. Do you know what housebreaking is? I suppose you know nothing of some one who broke into the school, the beginning of this term; and who was found near my bed, with a pillow; it looked very much as if he were going to try and kill me by smothering me. I wonder what that man wanted. He was frightened away by one of our boys, and he cut his hand getting over the wall. I wonder who that man was?"
 
"You know it was me. I would have done it, too, if I had not been found. I was frightened then, but I am not now. I am not in your power any more."
 
"Oh, and what has happened to change things?" inquired Horace Elgert mockingly.
 
"This," said the man fiercely. "If I have done wrong, what about you? There was a five-pound note stolen at your school——"
 
"What do you know about that?" cried Elgert quickly.
 
"I know that it was changed in the town by your friend; and I know that you and he went to buy it back, and paid far more than it was worth for it, and——"
 
[Pg 272]
 
"And having got it back, there the thing ends," laughed Horace; but the man laughed also.
 
"Oh, yes, you got it back; but not before I had photographed it! I have the negative here, a beautiful negative that will enlarge."
 
Elgert regarded him in silent fury.
 
"Well," he said, altering his tone, "what do you want for it? I suppose you are trying to make money?"
 
"My book—the one you stole. If it............