sophical and dismal way, had his perils, and
Pledge gave him no help through his difficulty. On the contrary, he
encouraged his growing discontent.

"Dismals again?" said he, one evening. "That cane of Winter's must be a
stiff one if it cuts you up like that."

"Winter always does lay it on thick to the kids, though," said Wrangham,
who happened to be present. "His lickings are in inverse ratio to the
size of the licked."

It did comfort Heathcote to hear his case discussed in such learned and
mathematical terms, but that was all the consolation he got.

Dick was in far too exalted a frame of mind to give much assistance.

"What does it matter?" said he, recklessly. "I don't mean to fret
myself."

And so the matter ended for the present. The two friends were bearing
their ordeal in two such different ways that they might almost have
parted company, had there not been another common interest of still
greater importance to bind them together.

One day Heathcote came up from the "Tub" at a canter and caught his
friend at the chapel door.

"Dick," he said, "it's all out! This bill was sticking on one of the
posts by the pier. It was wet, so I took it off."

Dick read--"_L2_ reward. Lost or stolen from her moorings, on Templeton
Strand, on the 4th inst, a lugger-rigged sailing boat, named the
_Martha_. Any one giving information leading to the recovery of the
boat--or if stolen, to the conviction of the thief--will receive the
above reward. Police Station, Templeton."

Dick handed the ominous paper back with a long face.

"Here, take it. Whatever did you pull it off the post for?"

"I thought you'd like to see it," said Heathcote, putting the despised
document into his pocket.

"So I did. Thanks, Georgie. We didn't steal the boat, did we?"

"Rather not. Not like what he did to our money."

"No. That was downright robbery."

"With violence," added Heathcote.

"Of course. It was really Tom White's fault the boat got adrift. It
was so carelessly anchored."

"Yes. A puff of wind would have slipped that knot."

There was a pause.

"It's plain he doesn't guess anything," said Dick.

"Not likely. And he's not likely to say anything about it, if he does."

"Of course not. It would mean transportation for him."

"After all, some one may have gone off with the boat. We can't tell.
It was there all right when we saw it, wasn't it?"

Dick looked at his friend. He could delude himself u